DISCLAIMER: I bought an iPad Air 2, and I bought said iPad Air 2 after owning the first iPad Air since launch day last year. I sold my iPad Air so I could do this. I really like my iPad Air 2, it's pretty great. I also really like Android. The following article contains my opinions, anecdotal evidence, subjective analysis thereof, and did I mention opinions? There are opinions. Also, this article is very long, so many sections just have side-by-sides of random Android vs iOS app comparisons presented without comment.

I've owned an iPad Air since the original model came out last year (my first iPad), and when the Air 2 came out late last month, I dove right in and bought another. Why? My biggest issue with the original Air was speed: occasional stutters and lackluster multitasking performance (I use that in an absolute, not relative sense) were thorns in the side of an otherwise fantastic tablet. The new Air 2 plucked them effectively with the addition of a third CPU core and doubling of RAM (to 2GB).

The Nexus 9, though, has intrigued me from its earliest rumblings. Tegra K1 Denver had me quite optimistic, as did NVIDIA's 192-core Kepler GeForce GPU. An 8.9" display with 4:3 aspect ratio and WXGA resolution, front-facing speakers, and Android 5.0. What's not to love? On paper, the Nexus 9 is the iPad-killer many of us, myself included, have been waiting for Google to build for years now.

So, how do they compare?

iPad Air 2: Pros

Good battery life when in use and truly excellent standby life mean you'll rarely pick up an iPad that's sat for a few days only to realize "oh, it's dead."

A great display that looks very good outdoors and amazing in high ambient light indoors - that anti-reflective coating is no gimmick.

Silky-smooth performance, and it's not just visual trickery - the iPad Air 2 has a screaming tri-core processor that, in multithreaded operations, is on par with older MacBook Airs. And it has a GPU just as powerful as Tegra K1's, if not more so.

Build quality and fit and finish literally second to none in the tablet industry.

Still the content king - tablet experiences come to iPad first, and often best.

iPad Air 2: Cons

Is an iPad, will result in some people thinking you're an Apple sycophant / the kind of person who lingers at coffee shops for 8 hours a day.

It probably wasn't a good idea to just go ahead and cut 15%+ of the battery capacity versus the previous model, it has suffered for it, despite what Apple claims.

Doesn't really come close to Android for sharing content between apps, 3rd party keyboard support is kind of crappy, and it doesn't have multiple user support.

Has lots of potential utility for work, but I still can't really do my job on one, not effectively.

Siri is garbage - Apple is in the voice command stone age.

Nexus 9: Pros

It runs Android 5.0 and will receive timely OS updates from Google. Lollipop is nice, it's pretty, and it adds a lot of cool new features to Android for users and developers alike.

For a Nexus device, the screen is pretty good. Not amazing, but totally respectable.

It's just the right size to type on. I think 8.9" is the sweet spot for software keyboards, at least for my hands.

Did I mention multi-user? Multi-user is great. Apple can't ignore this on the iPad forever.

Nexus 9: Cons

Build quality / quality control issues that border on embarrassing. Light bleed, back flex, snapping noises, and a general feeling of low-cost hardware. It's not just me, either, complaints are increasingly common.

K1 Denver just does not seem to be shaping up as the performance powerhouse we hoped it would be, the Nexus 9 stutters and lags at times, and generally is just kind of rough around the edges.

Battery life isn't fantastic. My Nexus 9 seems to have particularly bad issues with longevity, but standby drain is still an issue Android can't seem to nail down.

Tablet content is still spotty at times, even in Google's own apps - look at Hangouts on a Nexus 9. Yeesh.

Chrome is an utter and complete dog compared to Mobile Safari in terms of smoothness, web browsing on the Nexus 9 is just lamentable.

Hardware

Design and build quality

Air 2

The iPad Air 2 is, from the moment you set eyes on it, clearly something that costs a significant amount of money. That's probably because the Apple aesthetic has become synonymous with expensiveness in recent years, but it's not all confirmation bias. The chamfered aluminum frame wraps around the display with a barely-visible gap, carefully not raised above the display glass so that your fingers glide smoothly off the edges of the tablet should they venture that way.

The holes forming the speaker grilles have been carefully ground down so as not to feel sharp, and even the Lightning port has a little blanket of aluminum wrapped around it. The back of the tablet has very softly rounded corners, too, making the Air 2 comfortable to hold at almost any angle. The power and volume buttons have a satisfying and long - but easy - travel, and click with authority when pressed. There is never a question of "did I hit the power button?" when using an iPad. The new Touch ID home button has a similarly strong but refined action.

The iPad itself feels solid and tightly packed, but is very well balanced. Its very light weight for its size makes it easy to one-hand when reading an eBook or a long article on the web. Apple's anodized aluminum finish isn't for everyone, though - the metal is cold and slick after long periods without handling, perhaps explaining some of the Smart Cover's great popularity. Personally, I use a Smart Case, because Apple's Space Gray finish is fairly prone to scratching if you're not careful with it.

A tablet is one place, I would argue, where a home button is still at home. Reaching to the top of the device to power it on has always seemed a bit silly on something so large, and the combination of the home button and Touch ID makes it easy to secure my tablet without creating an annoying PIN or password.

All in all, no one who picks up an Air 2 is going to go "well, this thing is kind of shoddy" - Apple's level of attention to detail in construction, particularly in consistency, is in my opinion unmatched in the smartphone and tablet industry. They're still the gold standard for mass-produced quality in this business.

Nexus 9

When I pick up my Nexus 9, I feel like I'm grabbing a giant Nexus 5. The textured, matte-black plastic is reassuring in grip, if not inspiring of quality. If I pick it up by the left side, I can feel the plastic flexing along the edge of the aluminum frame, and occasionally it will produce an audible "click" while using the tablet, something I initially chalked up to a strange touch feedback glitch. It wasn't. I can sometimes hear the wrapping around the battery kind of "stick" against the rear cover when using the device with one hand, something I am decidedly unable to un-hear.

I've taken to double-tapping to power on the Nexus 9, a handy feature indeed, as the power button is among the most atrocious I've used in recent memory. Vague, squishy, and overly recessed into the frame. Same goes with the - way too closely-placed, by the way - volume rocker. It stinks. I still have to use the power button to turn off the display (something you can avoid with a cover, of course), though, so I can't escape it entirely.

While far from the worst of any device I've used in this regard, the Nexus 9's frame is raised above the display glass by a small but noticeable amount, giving it a bit of a sharp feel around the border of the glass. The raised rear camera, too, adds some unnecessary edginess to the hand-feel (the Air 2's is perfectly flush and tiny), and the gap between the aluminum frame and plastic cover sort of makes the Nexus 9 look a bit unfinished. The fact that the Nexus 9's edges bow out rather than pull in, too, is very strange to me - it gives the tablet a larger footprint and just sort of looks weird. That's a pretty personal issue, though.

Being just a bit lighter though substantially smaller than the Air 2, the Nexus 9 seems just as easy to one-hand to me for reading. While I find the edge of the Nexus digs into my palm a bit more, it's not that big of a deal. It seems well-balanced, too, and so is comfortable at most any angle.

Display

Nexus 9

I'm actually typing this on the Nexus 9 right now (yes, with a software keyboard), on a sunny Los Angeles day outside of a coffee shop at about 2:30PM. With the screen manually cranked to maximum brightness and the sun to the tablet's back, it's surprisingly usable. I'll also be trying this informal test with the Air 2 tomorrow.

One thing I'd note is that because of the Nexus 9's good-but-not-great contrast, it doesn't exactly provide a lot of color in very high ambient light. That said, the actual panel's reflectivity, compared to the glass, seems pretty low. I'm getting some greenish cast at certain angles, but it's not bad. Predictably, the tablet is getting fairly warm in these conditions, though what device wouldn't?

While the Nexus 9 has a fairly accurate display in my opinion, it's not especially vivid or high in contrast. The maximum brightness is very good, though, so these shortcomings are a little less apparent than they might otherwise be in bright ambient light. Even outside, the viewing angles seem quite good, and aside from that slight greenish cast in very bright direct sunlight, it seems to perform well at most positions.

I'm still getting fairly bad flicker with ambient brightness enabled, though, and I've narrowed it down to two specific conditions. First, the brightness slider needs to be somewhere below 60% (obviously, ambient mode needs to be on, too). Second, the room needs to lack much in the way of natural light, but instead be lit by an intense and fairly directional light source. Like a bathroom, or an office with a single desk lamp. Or a nightstand lamp next to your bed - you get the idea. At this point, my Nexus 9's display will flicker constantly. I don't have a second unit to test this with to see if it's a hardware problem with mine, though, unfortunately.

Air 2

Sitting in the same spot I was yesterday at roughly the same time, it's not much of a competition - the Air 2 maintains good contrast even with the sun beating down, and whites retain a surprising amount of brightness. The zero gap display is probably in play here, though the Nexus 9 has one as well as far as I know, so it's probably the anti-reflective coating that's lending the Air 2 the greatest advantage. Even as the fingerprints mount, the Air 2 retains exceptional readability outdoors.

iPads have always had great displays, however, so none of this is terribly surprising. DisplayMate recently crowned the Air 2 king in terms of measurable contrast in high ambient light conditions, and it's a conclusion I'm quite inclined to agree with.

Inside, the Air 2 does fair a little less well against the Nexus 9 in terms of sheer brightness, but the Air's noticeably greater contrast and lower reflectivity make it substantially more attractive and, I'd argue, easier to read on. The Air's display also seems to 'pop' right onto the top of the display glass in a way the Nexus 9 just doesn't, giving it an almost glossy-paper quality that I really enjoy.

The accuracy of the Air's display is also wonderful, by my judgment, and the added contrast allows it to display vivid hues naturally, without having to crank up the saturation.

Audio

Nexus 9

After seeing iFixIt's teardown, I'm pretty confident in asserting that the Nexus 9's dual front facing speakers are basically just the ones used in HTC's nicer phones. They're excellent for a phone, but as tablets go, these aren't going to blow anyone away, not anyone who has had a tablet with reasonably good speakers.

I am very much in agreement with Ars Technica's assessment, too, that equalization or volume normalization make them sound muddled and dull at times. This makes them less suited for watching TV or movies, because voices, music, and environmental noise get pushed together in a way that reduces dynamic range in an attempt to normalize the levels. They're perfectly usable, they're just not the kind of speakers I'd want if I was paying $400+ for a tablet. The fact that they're front-facing is really only a major benefit if you're sitting the tablet on its folding cover, and even then, the lower volume and poorer dynamic range still ends up being a tradeoff here versus the Air 2.

iPad Air 2

The Air 2 received a substantial speaker upgrade over the original Air, and it's definitely noticeable. The maximum volume these little drivers put out is impressive, and they retain a surprisingly decent amount of clarity even when working at the limit.

Apple also doesn't attempt to artificially insert mid and bass tones into speakers that, frankly, aren't capable of producing them with anything resembling fidelity. The result is that the Air 2 can sound less 'full' than the Nexus 9, but never any quieter or less clear. The fact that the Air's speakers are of the bottom-firing variety has long been a grievance of Apple critics and fans alike, though, and I'm certainly not going to say those complaints are without merit.

Overall, the Air 2's speakers are far better suited for content like podcasts, TV, and movies than the Nexus 9's. Anything with spoken word content as the dominant audio source is simply going to sound nicer and be easier to hear on the Air.

For gaming and music, it's more of a toss up. The Air's speakers can sound shrill with certain high pitched noises, whereas the Nexus 9 is more muted. The times when this really provide the Nexus with an advantage, though, are few. Even when I put the devices side by side on a table, propped up in a case, the Air still generally sounds better and louder because of its emphasis on clarity. If I'm choosing one to watch Netflix in bed with, it's the Air 2 every single time. If they were front facing, it would put the Air 2 in a whole other league than the Nexus. As it stands, it's still very noticeably better.

Battery life

Nexus 9

I can't seem to eek out much more than 5 hours of screen-on time with the Nexus 9. On the new build, battery life is slightly improved over the 4-4.5 hours I was getting on the prerelease firmware, but Google's 9.5 hour Wi-Fi browsing estimate still seems based in a reality outside of our mortal plane. I fully understand that a litany of battery benchmark tests support Google's estimate, even surpass it. Nothing in my regular usage supports these conclusions, though, and I have been using the Nexus 9 every single day since it arrived.

My activities on a tablet consist of: checking email (a whopping 2 accounts synced), browsing the web, checking Google+ / Twitter, browsing Reddit, occasional IMs, a bit of YouTube here and there, and occasionally reading an eBook. I don't even play games on the Nexus 9, I am doing nothing to stress it beyond what I would call truly ordinary tasks.

"Today" v. Android notification bar

Could I stretch it to 6 hours if I really tried? Setting display brightness to minimum and disabling Bluetooth are really the only options I've got there, and honestly, they shouldn't even be on the table. These are exactly the sort of things I don't worry about with my iPad, why in the hell should I have to pay attention and manage them on the Nexus 9? If you were just doing eBook reading and had the display bottomed out to the lowest setting, maybe 8, 9, or even 10 hours would not be out of the realm of possibility. In a productivity or web browsing capacity, though, the Nexus 9's battery has simply not delivered on its promises.

Standby life on the Nexus 9 isn’t fantastic, either - I’m getting around 15% idle drain quite reliably every 24 hours, which is absolutely at odds with Google’s 30-day standby estimate. Even if you don't agree with my assessment of the usage time life, Android's idle drain is still an absolute embarrassment. I could let my first Air sit for a week untouched and the battery gauge would barely budge - maybe a few percent. Android has never been great about this, and it doesn't seem to be getting much better.

iPad Air 2

One of the iPad's big strengths has long been its highly impressive battery life. Much of this has to do with iOS - as an operating system, it has chosen to focus on single task performance and extremely low background process overhead as a way to maximize efficiency. Over the years, we have all watched Android catch up here by leaps and bounds, though Android phones on average still have significantly larger batteries than their iOS competitors, despite relatively comparable battery life.

The Air 2 has, depending on who you ask, worse or basically similar battery life compared to the first Air. I have generally found it to be worse, though the battery lost a whopping 1260mAh in the new device to reduce weight and thickness, much to the chagrin of users who complain Apple's reductionist obsession comes at a cost of practicality.

Unlike the Nexus 9, I also find the iPad's battery life is exceptionally dependent upon display brightness above all else. While that may be true on the Nexus 9, too, the iPad still seems much more affected by it. At maximum brightness, the iPad will crash out at around 5 hours, around 25-35% longer than the Nexus 9 will last under those conditions. This number is highly variable, though - dropping to 50% with auto brightness enabled, it increases to 7 or 8 hours.

Dropbox

Because of the iPad's excellent outdoor display contrast, too, maxing out the brightness isn't necessary to retain usability for things like reading, email, web browsing, or writing, whereas it's fairly crucial on the Nexus.

The Air 2 has excellent standby life, to the point that I basically find myself plugging it in only when it's finally on its last legs - it drains maybe two or three percent in a day when sitting unused, sometimes less. Unlike the Nexus 9, I also have confidence that no matter which apps I install, that standby life will not be greatly compromised, because of iOS's fairly aggressive control of background processes. You also get more granular sync and notification controls in iOS if an app does misbehave, too.

I remain highly impressed at the Air's standby life, (though I fully recognized iOS has brought standby life complaints on older devices), and I do not miss for a moment Android's wonderful ability to surprise you with a half dead battery because of a rogue process running the GPS or wakelocking the CPU for hours on end. It just doesn't happen on the iPad, and never did on my first Air, either.

Software

Usability: Typing

Typing on the Air 2 is not my favorite thing. I think the Nexus 9's form factor is near-optimal in terms of required finger reach and weight distribution for typing on the software keyboard. With the Air, I feel like I'm balancing the opposite end of the tablet against my hands in a way that's just kind of uncomfortable. There isn't too much fatigue over long stretches, but it just never quite feels right. To be fair, the same could be said of literally any 10.1" tablet, too, a form factor I still find utterly befuddling on its face. Weight is a bit less important than the distribution of that weight, and so the iPad's impeccable balance works against it here. It's not bad, it's just not something I'd want to be doing all the time.

Google Docs

The Nexus 9 is significantly more compact, though, and this provides a very real advantage. Not only do your fingers not have to reach as far, there's less torque working against you at the top of the tablet, and it makes for a more comfortable typing experience. I don't love typing on the Nexus 9, but in a pinch, if I had to bang out a 500 word email, I'd pick it up over the Air, no doubt.

On the issue of software keyboard choice and performance, Android still comes out on top without question. 3rd party keyboards remain glitchy in iOS 8, something that annoys me constantly. It just isn't done. I end up reverting back to the Apple keyboard sometimes because it's more reliable and predictable, but still significantly less intelligent than something like SwiftKey. Maybe they'll get it down by iOS 9.

Usability: Video watching

The Air 2's high contrast (not to mention larger) display, extremely loud speakers, and the smart covers and cases make it a truly excellent tablet for video - if you're watching it on the tablet. A lot of us are increasingly likely, though, to pick up a tablet in our living room or bedroom, find something to watch, and then fling it to our televisions.

If you have an Apple TV, the iPad Air 2 can do this very easily via AirPlay. Many apps are even Chromecast ready on iOS, so you can do that, as well. You can even stream to devices like Roku in the YouTube app for iOS, among others.

Netflix

The Nexus 9 definitely loses the on-device watching battle, but Chromecast's stunning popularity still means Android is getting the pick of the litter when it comes to app compatibility. Add in the Play Store's cast-ready movie and TV libraries, something iTunes decidedly does not have, and this is a very close race indeed. Considering that, as Android people, we are unlikely to own Apple TVs, the Nexus is probably the winner here for many of you.

For me, it's too close to call. I use a Roku 3, so that's really my viewing hub of choice, and Android and iOS are largely equal in their compatibility with the box. Add in the fact that iOS has an officially-sanctioned Amazon Instant Video app (albeit frustratingly without Roku or casting), though, and the iPad edges out a close win for me.

Usability: Multitasking

This section is bound to be divisive, but personally, I don't find the Air 2 substantially worse or better for multitasking than the Nexus 9 on a holistic level. Both, though, have their individual strengths.

The card stack app switching UI introduced in Android 5.0 can parse out your web tabs in Chrome and the documents you've had open in Docs or Sheets. This is very nice. I like it a lot. It is much more efficient than the iOS app switcher in 95% of situations. The problem, though, is that it usually takes longer to appear and switch tasks than in iOS, so some of that advantage is diminished.

Control center v. quick controls

The amount of app reflows I encounter in each OS seems similar, and rarely do either outright fail to go back to the previous state in a backgrounded app. iOS is generally faster to load up an app that has been pushed out of memory, however, and is less likely to cause a locked up UI thread in the process. The entire multitasking experience just feels smoother.

In terms of handling notifications, Android is still easily the winner. Tons of apps support actionable notifications, and while this is now a feature on the iPad as of iOS 8, few apps seem to be taking adoption very seriously - a statement I find is equally true of iOS widgets. It is very easy to bury notifications on iOS, too, because their persistence exists only on the home screen icon of the app or in the notification bar when it is pulled down. Notification icons in the status bar is something I still find iOS is so much worse off for not having.

Usability: Web browsing

You can throw benchmarks and timed tests at me until you're blue in the face - mobile Safari kicks Chrome's ass every day of the week. The smoothness alone is evidence to me that while Google may care about a browser's technical proficiency, Apple cares at least as much about its usability and consistency, if not more.

Chrome for Android's usability is a victim of Google's cross-platform utopian vision, and for now, it's just not a fantastic touch browser. Safari may not always be faster in every benchmark or timed comparison, but it's smoother in all the ways that matter. And the fact is that more web pages have iPad optimized pages that don't pick up on devices using Chrome with similar layouts. This is a long-running benefit of Apple's strict policy of having only two iOS user agents - iPhone and iPad.

Safari v. Chrome

I think the best way to put it is that Mobile Safari is the Rolls Royce to Chrome's sports SUV. The Rolls may not be as fast in every situation, but it takes bumps and potholes in the road like they're not even there. The SUV soaks them up without being the worse for wear, but it never feels as graceful doing it.

No, I don't get all my Chrome-synced browsing history, favorites, or passwords. But honestly, Safari's smoothness is more than worth the inconvenience. I used Chrome on iOS - once. That's all the experience I needed.

Usability: Documents, spreadsheets, and presentations

Android will have Word, Excel, and PowerPoint tablet apps early next year, and of course has the Google suite of apps.

Pictured: a thing Android doesn't have yet.

For me, this isn't a tough call - iOS has all three of the major document ecosystems and they're all designed with solid iPad experiences. Not to mention the Apple productivity suite now has a pretty good cloud-based browser mode that allows you to use it on any platform. Also, as I'm sitting here writing this on the Air 2 in Docs right now, it performs more smoothly than the Android app, somewhat sadly.

If you have no interest in the Apple productivity ecosystem, obviously things are much closer to parity, or I should say will be close to parity when Office arrives for Android tablets. In the here and now, the iPad has a clear advantage in this arena.

Usability: Email

This one really depends on what kind of email you're dealing with. The iPad has a pretty rock-solid stock email app, but I don't use it. I use the Gmail app, which is OK on iOS, but still not great.

For me, Android is an easy win for email superiority. It has an Inbox app that looks reasonably OK on tablets (iOS only has an iPhone app) and the Gmail app of record, period. Gmail for Android also now allows you to sync your non-Gmail accounts in the Gmail app, further streamlining Android's email experience.

I yearn for the day of a material Gmail app for my iPad, but even then, I don't anticipate its performance in syncing will match the Android version - Gmail has to re-sync on iOS every time you open it, and only when you open it, even when background refreshing is enabled. It's truly annoying. Once Google releases an iPad experience for Inbox, this may be a slightly closer race, but I think Android will always retain the advantage for Gmail users over iOS.

Usability: Maps

iOS has Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze, Bing Maps in the Bing app, and will allegedly get Nokia HERE maps soon enough. Android has basically most of this stuff, too. Google keeps the iOS version of Maps very up to date, usually within days of the Android version, so there's no real advantage to Android there. The material update to Maps was actually out the same day for both platforms.

Google Maps is the de facto mapping application for most of us, myself included, so this really is a tossup. On a tablet, the iOS and Android Maps experiences are similar to the point that it’s only the tiny differences that distinguish them, they're almost identical.

Yelp

I’d call this one a draw - both iOS and Android have a lot of mapping options, and both have the best mapping option: Google Maps. iOS does have Apple Maps, but with Google Maps existing and all, it’s hard to call that much of a benefit.

Usability: App / content storefront and purchasing experience

Obviously, content is still likely the main reason you buy a tablet - there's only so much web browsing to be done, apps and content are the backbone of the tablet economy.

Buying apps may be a bit less common than it was, at least in the per capita sense, than it was in the early days of the iPad, but I still think it's an important part of the experience, and obviously video, music, and eBook content is still a big business.

One of the great tools the Air 2 gives you here is Touch ID. While it can be a bit annoying that you have to supply a fingerprint each time you download even a free app, there is utter peace of mind that you'll never end up paying Apple for something you didn't biometrically sign off on. The only apps that can circumvent this are those that sell primarily physical goods, like Amazon.

Apple also shows you an app's complete list of in-app purchases in iTunes before you download it, something Android users, myself included, have been wanting for ages. In-app purchases must be authorized explicitly every single time you make them, so unless your kids or nosy relatives skim your fingerprint off some glassware, you won't be paying for any unwanted lollipop hammers.

Google did allow you to protect yourself on the Play Store with a PIN, but they got rid of it. Not that PINs are great, either - as a kid, I knew my dad's debit card PIN by heart by the time I was 13 because he got tired of entering it any time I wanted to watch something rated MA on TV. Regardless, Google has since removed the PIN option, leaving you only with a password and the content filtering mode. The latter is something the iPad does, oddly, lack.

eBay

The real nail in the coffin here for Android, however, is sharing. You can share purchased apps, music, and other iTunes content across multiple Apple IDs in iOS 8, something that just isn't possible on Android yet. For families looking to share paid content across multiple devices in a household where each device has a different owner, this could be a killer feature.

And since owning my first Air, the number of times I've had to "buy something twice" because I wanted it on iOS and Android has been exactly zero. I think we all need to own up to that not really being a big deal these days - iOS even has Play Books, Movies, Newsstand, and Music. Most of us are buying content that easily moves between platforms or are paying for subscription services that are widely supported. The "buy everything twice" myth needs to die, die, die. It's true for paid games, but guess what: that's been true about video games on any platform since time eternal. It's the way it is. It sucks, but it's not a phenomena unique to Android and iOS.

As to the issue of third-party app stores, they are 100% irrelevant to me, so I don't really give the Nexus 9 any advantage there.

They say content is king, and I think the crown still goes to the iPad here.

Usability: Sharing between apps

Android was built around content sharing. iOS wasn't. Apple has been playing catch-up in the sharing game for ages, and it still isn't quite there. Sharing on iOS remains decidedly clunky in many situations, particularly if you're not sharing content through one of Apple's proprietary applications or services.

This is changing in iOS 8, but that change is coming slowly. The extensibility APIs are allowing developers to insert Android-style intents into the iOS sharing interface that appears in many applications, but adoption has remained somewhat slow. Granted, it's only been out a couple of months. Apps I still can't simply share a picture to without opening them first? Pretty much everything I use. Dropbox, Gmail, Hangouts, Drive, or Google+. And the apps it does work with sometimes respond by freezing or just not doing the thing you tell them to do - extensibility is clearly a work in progress.

Spotify

Move over to Android, and this sort of thing is so embedded in my behavior that it's practically muscle memory. If there's something Android has always done well and continues to dominate in, it's sharing. Hands down victory here for Google.

While AirDrop can be cool if you have a Mac or another iOS device, like Android Beam it's just not fast and seamless enough for me to understand why I wouldn't just email or Dropbox a file to myself or someone else. I guess those methods are "cleaner," but I'm all about speed, interoperability, and simplicity - anyone can open a Dropbox URL. I'm not interested in a sharing method I have to explain to the other party.

Usability: My job

Aside from writing, my job entails a few repetitive tasks that can be done with reasonably good efficiency on a tablet. Basically, that cycle is checking and responding to email (Gmail), using our group chat platform (HipChat), and adding stories to our project manager (Basecamp). There is, of course, web browsing and social media checking throughout this whole process, too, and the aforementioned writing.

Writing for work on either device is equally impractical. I would probably lose my mind if I was forced to do it. The WordPress applications for iOS and Android are pretty bad, so I can only really write longer form content on my tablets, stuff I'm on my own schedule to publish or have a long deadline to work with. So, writing news stories on any non-Windows tablet really isn't something worth trying to mess with for me. In an emergency situation where I had to choose a tablet to do posts on, I think both platforms would be equally infuriating, though sometimes for different reasons.

NPR

For the email / HipChat / Basecamp cycle, which do I prefer? Android's superior share intents and rapid-fire task switching are significant advantages, as are my synced passwords for certain websites in Chrome. The superior native Gmail experience also helps out, and makes pushing through hundreds of emails in the morning easier.

The iPad is capable of doing all this, but I've never really made a constant habit out of using it in this way. The iPad has an excellent HipChat app and what I believe is an excellent Basecamp app I can't use because the particular way we manage projects there causes said app to crash. They're working on it.

The Gmail experience is good, but not Android level good, and because I don't visit tons of work sites on the iPad, rapid URL entry and credential entry can be a bit more cumbersome.

Granted, we are an Android site, so it shouldn't exactly come as a surprise, I hope, that an Android device would play nice with the tools we use. Still, even an Android tablet still isn't a serious work device for me, because I can't use it to do the aspect of most importance in my job effectively: publishing posts. And even the things it can do are still best done on my desktop, where I can do them much more quickly not just because of its speed, but the robust multitasking capabilities a desktop OS provides.

The winner here? Neither. I can't do the most important part of my job with a Nexus 9 or an iPad Air 2, not without suffering through some rather horrid workarounds (i.e.. the WordPress web editor on a mobile browser).

When I do choose to do work on a tablet, it's probably still going to be the iPad, because I know when I go to grab it the battery won't be dead. A cheap shot, but it's true.

Usability: Photography (my job redux)

Photo taking is one of the few slightly specialized tasks I really have to do regularly in my job, not that it's one I claim to do particularly well. I have an Adobe Creative Cloud membership with the photography package, and I find myself in Photoshop and Lightroom pretty regularly. Is there even any hope trying this stuff on a tablet?

On Android, you have Photoshop Express and Photoshop Touch. The latter is rarely updated, the former feels somewhat left behind in the Creative Cloud era. Neither is exactly built with photography in mind, but are centered more around image manipulation and Photoshop-specific tools.

On the iPad, you have those two apps plus something called Photoshop Mix, which was developed specifically to showcase Creative Cloud and the integration it would allow you to experience across multiple devices, along with some of Photoshop CC's newest features like content-aware fill. Adobe has not yet decided if it will bring Mix to Android, pending consumer response to the app.

Lightroom Mobile

The only other notable advantage for me is that the iPad has a Lightroom app and the Nexus 9 doesn't. Adobe is developing an Android version, but who knows when it will arrive. The problem is that, oh so ironically, Lightroom for iOS doesn't support direct RAW importing. Photoshop Express, oddly, does (for supported RAW formats). Editing can only be done on JPEGs or Adobe's Smart Previews, so there's no way to import your raw images directly on your iPad in Lightroom. They have to be imported to a Windows or OS X copy of Lightroom into a collection that is synced to Lightroom Mobile, at which point Adobe stores Smart Preview copies of those images in the cloud, where Lightroom Mobile can then edit them once the iPad syncs them. Changes made on Lightroom Mobile propagate back up through the cloud and the develop settings and other edits will then sync to the desktop app seamlessly and vice versa. It's actually pretty neat.

The one thing I can do with Lightroom Mobile is quick and dirty trade show photo management. My Sony camera can wirelessly send full-size JPEGs to the iPad through the Play Memories app, and Lightroom can import those JPEGs into a collection (or create a new one). This allows me to wipe my memory card more frequently and save the annoying business of picking shots for later, while simultaneously organizing them by collection as I go. The downside is that these are fully processed JPEGs, not raw images, so the level of editing that can be done without ruining them is pretty limited. At trade shows, this isn't usually a major concern for me, though, because time is so limited. This is decidedly more efficient than whipping out my laptop, putting in the SD card, opening the Lightroom import dialog, and then waiting for it to complete. I can do this all with the camera still strapped to me and the iPad in my hands as I walk. Or I can just attach a Lightning SD card reader to the iPad - that works too.

Gaming

I'm not a huge tablet gamer, but the few games I do occasionally play on my iPad are Hearthstone, World of Tanks, and Plants vs. Zombies 2. Two of those three aren't out on Android, though both Hearthstone and World Of Tanks will be released on the Play Store before the year is out.

This kind of situation has long been used as "evidence" for the narrative we've been fed about Android gaming since, well, Android: game developers don't care about Android as much as iOS. This is then backed up with the disparity in release dates across the platforms, [increasingly rare] titles that land indefinite iOS exclusivity, and anecdotal evidence about iOS users spending more money on apps than Android users.

World of Tanks: Blitz

Today, all of this seems to be the exception, not the rule. Most of the big mobile game development houses are giving both platforms lots of attention, even if Android does still occasionally run into the hurdles it historically has. Lack of device compatibility, crashing, and performance issues, though, are generally limited to older or rarer phones and tablets these days, and affecting an ever-smaller minority of users as Android and the industry have matured.

It's true, iOS has the benefit of a much smaller set of devices that developers need to support, and that advantage can manifest in the form of superior performance optimization, increased stability, and earlier release dates. It may also mean that a developer has lower performance targets on Android because of the greater number of chipsets and devices they need to test on. Time is obviously going to be a huge factor there, because time is money.

But for the EAs, Gamelofts, Kings, and Rovios of the world, it seems to have become largely acceptable to eat these costs in order to keep app ratings higher and increase user base. For smaller indie devs, I think this is probably a lot more of a concern, but at the end of the day, targeting the most popular devices and chipsets on Android is still going to bag you a large potential audience, and it seems most still choose to do it.

Hearthstone in the App Store

So, which is better for gaming, then? Right now, while I do empathize with the position that Android has improved immensely in this area and that characterizations of Android tablets as gaming wastelands is simply untrue, the facts still support the iPad.

Are there tons of games coming out for iOS that aren't coming out for Android? Not nearly as many as there were, but there still are some. How many games are getting released on iOS significantly before Android? Fewer than there were, but there still are some.

The point I'm making is that while gaming on Android has definitely been improving pretty quickly over the last few years, iOS managed to pull out quite a lead here. The Nexus 9 doesn't even have a significant performance edge over the Air 2, their GPUs perform comparably in many benchmarks, with each seeming to have its strengths. Add in the fact that the Air's GPU is going to see a lot more devoted attention in terms of optimizing than any one Android device's GPU will (plus Apple's Metal tools), and NVIDIA's Kepler GPU may end up the objective loser in the real world once all is said and done.

At the end of the day, the iPad still has more games, generally gets them more quickly, and sees more focused attention from developers. It reaps the benefits a tightly controlled hardware ecosystem sows in the gaming industry. As long as those benefits exist, Android tablets will always be playing catch up here, even if they're not far behind.

And let's be realistic: the Nexus 9 will probably never even sell in Amazon Kindle Fire numbers, let alone iPad numbers, and apart from the Nexus, Tegra K1 has seen next to no adoption at this point outside NVIDIA's homegrown Shield Tablet. That math isn't encouraging. So, the iPad Air 2 continues in the tradition of being a fairly easy choice in the category of mobile gaming.

The Nexus 9 is facing a history of headwinds in this area, and I don't think it's equipped to combat them any better than previous Android tablets. It's not more powerful than the Air 2, it doesn't have any specialized gaming features, and it doesn't appear to be doing more to court game developers than any other tablet. The Nexus 9 simply isn't a game changer when it comes to games. Now, the Shield Tablet? That's a story for another article.

Stability / UX

The Nexus 9 currently has a well-deserved reputation for bugginess and occasional slowdowns. It is not the world's most reliable tablet, not as the software is currently shipping, at least. I'll say this: I am eagerly awaiting Android 5.0.1, or whatever the first maintenance release is called.

While writing this piece just today, I've had Google Docs crash on me three separate times when switching back to it from the recent apps menu. I also had Google Chrome hard freeze the tablet for about 30 seconds earlier this morning for no apparent reason. I haven't had any random reboots, so at least there's that. Edit: I lied. It just froze in Docs and I hard to do a hard reset. Hooray. Anyway, the problem is that the Nexus 9 just performs so inconsistently, it drives me up the walls almost every time I go to use it. For example, the notification bar kept getting stuck earlier. I don't know why.

The iPad Air 2 is not the shining image of software perfection, but it's a hell of a lot more predictable and smooth than the Nexus. That said, my Air 2 did lock up on me last week for about 2 minutes in Safari before it did a soft reboot of the OS. This happened only once, and frankly, it's not unheard of, but issues like this are not usually severe enough in frequency in iOS to be a real problem. Apple does have a history of taking a while to resolve some of these things, though - they are far from infallible. Still, that's the one real glitch I've seen on the Air 2 since getting it.

Pictured: value-adds

From a smoothness and stability standpoint, iOS 8 feels so much more refined and predictable than Lollipop does on the Nexus 9. Apple is known for obsessing over things like animation draw times and smooth scrolling, trying to create an experience that never feels jarring or rough around the edges. Apple seems to toil indefatigably to ensure those home screen swipes and launch animations are perfect every time. Moving to the more powerful A8X chip with three cores now means that smoothness persists even during app installs or other background operations, an area where the first Air occasionally would have difficulty.

IMDB

This is such a huge thing, for me, from a UX standpoint. Google has tried to instill these values in Android with things like Project Butter, but it's never seemed to pan out exactly in the way I think we all hoped would. The obsession with smoothness in iOS is almost religious. In Android, it's always seemed like an attitude of "hey, if you can keep things at around 60FPS, that'd be great or whatever." I realize animations and such things are far more aesthetic than functional, but they can have a huge effect on how you perceive performance and feel about a device. Using the iPad just feels nicer, I don't find myself getting annoyed by it nearly as often as the Nexus.

Conclusion

So, why conclude here? What about App X or Feature Y I didn't talk about that the Nexus 9 has, but for which there is no analog on the Air? Well, this post is about how I use my tablets, and on that basis, I've ticked the boxes I set out to when I started writing it. I also wrote about 85% of this post in Google Docs on the Nexus 9 and Air 2, probably more so the Nexus 9 because it's just easier to type on, though. And hey, it's getting pretty long, so I wanted to wrap it up before it turned into a novel.

Amazon

As things stand now, my Air 2 isn't going anywhere. I don't feel I got fantastic value for money out of that $600 I dropped (I couldn't resist the 64GB model), but there's no way I'd put down $480, or even $400, for a Nexus 9. In my opinion, that's just throwing money away if all you're really looking for is an Android tablet running Lollipop. It's simply not worth it, not even close. There are a gaggle of refurbished Nexus 7 2013s out there that still look and run just fine on Android 5.0, and with totally comparable (if not better) build quality. If what you want is an iPad-ish (4:3, larger, high-end) Android tablet, then yes, the Nexus 9 is the only remotely respectable one available at the moment.

But as is often the case with Nexus devices, when Google sets a reference point, OEMs scurry along to emulate it. All those 7", 16:9 tablets and seriously incredibly-awkward I don't even know how anyone thought that was a good idea 10.1" (or larger) 16:9 tablets? You can probably expect a significant culling of those herds when 2015 rolls around. The 7" tablet will probably have some staying power in the low end of the market, but I fully expect to see companies zero in on the 8.5-9.5" range for 2015, likely with a slightly slower shift to the 4:3 display aspect ratio.

Meanwhile, the iPad Air 2 is, frankly, the gold standard in tablets. It has the most (and I'd argue, largely, the best) apps, it has what is probably the best mobile chipset on the market, it's by far the nicest tablet from a quality standpoint, and it has an awesome display. It's not without weaknesses, but the Air 2's strengths make up for them in spades. Apple continues to evolve iOS reliably every year, even if some of those new features are obvious pickups on older Android ones, and it ships with a smooth, reliable software experience (... on its newer devices, good luck with more than one major iOS upgrade, though).

While it's not everyone's cup of tea, I'd say the iPad is still the tablet to beat as far as most people are concerned, myself included.

Comments

andy_o

Wow thanks, just in time. Right now I'm planning to return my N9 and sell mi iPad mini and get the Air 2. The top light bleed and other little things just add up enough not to warrant almost $500, not to mention that they're charging freaking $80 for 16GB, which not even Apple is doing anymore.

Hockoto

I would suggest checking out the Nvidia Shield if you wanted to have better gaming, easier book reading, better video watching, better music listening and the ability to write and draw using a stylus all for an affordable price tag.

If these are not things you want, and instead want everything else to be better, so web browsing, social media, typing, specialty apps like DJ, etc. Then go for the Air.

I agree, ST is probably better if you want a hardcore gaming tablet. The iPad is better if you're into casual mobile titles and the big franchises, but ST has a range of unique advantages right now.

HL, HL2, Portal, GRID, Gamestream, HDMI-out, an awesome Wi-Fi Direct gamepad, and NVIDIA is updating the OS very quickly. It's more of a risky buy, I guess, but I think NVIDIA is going full steam ahead on the dedicated gaming tablet concept 1000x better than anyone else has.

Epic Tea

Apple Closet Fanboy.

Non of your cons are real issues.

Shut_Up_Fanboy

Dude, shut up. You sound like a whiny, petulant child.

andy_o

I already have experience with iOS, I have an iPad Mini Retina. I also have a N10 which I'm still keeping if I do what I said above. I dig the 4:3 on a tablet as well, especially for reading both websites and books, and I use DAW software so I don't think I'll be going with a Shield tablet, but I did consider it.

Donatom3

I've pretty much decided to return my Nexus 9. I like Lollipop, but I refuse to be burned by another Nvidia mobile processor. I love their desktop video cards, but every one of their tablet processors I have had stuttered and had more issues than my "underpowered" android phones. On top of that HTC's build quality has definitely gone down hill on this one.

The back feels like thin sheet of vinyl. That flex is really horrible.

MrMLK

Before you diss every Nvidia processor, try the Shield Tablet. Runs everything I throw at it with nary a stutter. And the build quality is fantastic.

Donatom3

I've been burned by the 3 I've had so far, but I do hear good things about the shield. For the price I may have to give that one a try. Or wait till they figure out the problems with the Nexus 9 and drop the price.

Hockoto

Go for the Shield Tablet, best tablet I've ever owned, and I own an Ipad Air.

You'll still want the iPad Air for things that require the larger and 4:3 ratio like typing. I find the 16:10 to be better at everything else like reading, playing games, watching videos, browsing, etc. Though the size is more a problem when browsing, so I'd give that to the Air as a win.

Donatom3

I'm actually at the point that I'm thinking of just saving up a bit more and getting a Surface Pro 3. Have the best of everything. I've setup a few of them for people here, and honestly if it could have pushed 3 monitors like my current win 8.1 laptop does I would have ordered it for my workstation at the office instead of the Dell.

If you want a productivity tablet, the iPad isn't going to be it unless you know going in that it satisfies your specific neeeds. The SP3 blows anything else in the segment away for obvious reasons there. I might even be interested in a Surface if they weren't such fucking battle tanks - that is one big, heavy-ass tablet. No good for casual web browsing or reading in bed, frankly. I love how light and easy to hold the Air 2 is.

Donatom3

It's definitely big, but I work in IT so I find so many uses for it. I have my N7, and an order on an N6 for reading in bed.
My only laptop right now is my work one with a touchscreen. Needless to say I know how well Win 8.1 can work with a touchscreen. So I figure the SP3 would be a good fit for me. I'll have to wait for that better lollipop tablet or pickup a N9 again once the price drops and Nvidia, Google and HTC figure out how to code for this new processor.

Darwin

I was just talking to a Microsoft consultant who hates the SP 3 he has been required to use. It does lots of things. All of them badly. But they won't let him use a laptop instead.

"The SP3 blows anything else in the segment away for obvious reasons there."

Does this boil down to the fact that it's running a full desktop OS on an Intel processor? I've been asked to recommend a tablet to a friend and he's already leaning toward the Surface, so I wanted to get some ideas about how usable it really is.

lensgrabber

I think the SP3 i5/256 is the one to get. I'm waiting for another 20% off Staples coupon before buying anything. On the other hand, Best Buy has the 32gb regular Surface 2 going up for black Friday at $299 so I'm thinking about that one too even though it can't run full programs.

Donatom3

I have the exact same i5 in my work laptop. That thing does most everything I need for work without hiccups. When I buy that's the version I want.

Donatom3

The stylus is also awesome. It will take any usb device that your windows 7+ computer would. They sell a fantastic dock that you can use to work it like a desktop when you get home. It is bigger and heavier but the build quality is top notch. The built in kick stand works great. It really depends on your friend's needs.

If they want a media consumption device then the iPad is the one to go for. If they want a tablet that can also replace their laptop the SP3 is the way to go. If they want a really portable cheap tablet for media consumption get a 2013 N7.

Darwin

If you want a device that is a terrible laptop and a terrible tablet then get a surface. Especially if you like terrible user interfaces and little software to choose from.
Oh and low standards help too.

tralalalalalala37

The surface is not a tablet, it's a laptop with a touchscreen. That's why it has a fan. Who wants to carry around a fan?

MillennialsMakeLaws

What does the SP3 offer in terms of productivity that an iPad with a bluetooth keyboard does not?

NathanDrago

Multiple windows open at the same time + all the desktop programs environment.
I'd thought that was obvious.

Darwin

Multiple Windows on that tiny screen are a joke and Office on the iPad is quite good.

NathanDrago

A joke for you, chap :-) Also, you forgot the "all the desktop programs environment" part.

mobilemann

the sp3 doesn't get compared to an ipad though, it gets compared to other things in it's price class, like the macbook air, i recently tracked an entire album on with it's 700/MBs PCIE storage.

Darwin

The Surface Pro 3 is pretty obviously the worst if everything g which is why they are not selling and being returned in large numbers.

tralalalalalala37

The surface is not a tablet. It's a laptop with a touch screen.

Peter Farac

My tegra 4 transformer is a great tablet in smoothness and usability, but similar to the nexus 9 the battery life is really bad. I don't think it's android's fault.

deppman

It is Android's fault. I have a transformer TF701T that I use daily. Battery life used to suck. Now I get 8-10hr on a charge, and an easy 4-5 for OGL intense games. The dock adds 2-4 hours to those numbers.

The trick is to aggressively locate and remove or manage the battery sucking apps. Ditch Skype for Google hangouts. Be careful about widgets. Check wake locks. Google Android battery drain and follow the suggestions.

If you are seeing >3‰ drain overnight while idling (I generally see 1-2%) then something in your tablet is wrong.

To be fair, ST is running a different chipset and has way fewer pixels to push. The ST's K1 has 4 A15 cores based on the ARM reference design, whereas the N9 is using something quite a bit newer.

The Nexus 9 has NVIDIA's first in-house designed processor, and it uses wacky in-order execution, something no one else is doing right now, and it could be causing problems. I'm not skeptical of NVIDIA's chipsets at large, but I'd be wary of *any* company's first swing at their own core design.

MrMLK

I wasn't commenting on anything except the part about Nvidia not making any good mobile processors.

I thought your article was very interesting, and it might tempt me to switch, but my most favorite mobile app (Calibre Companion) is only available on Android.

I do think in general that you are too hard on Android in reguard to software. There may be more games on IOS, both both platforms have more than any person needs or can get through.

Kijiji

Wouldn't being fair to give a chance to the Nvidia Shield because of what you just said?

I guess? My point is the Shield Tablet is using CPU cores NVIDIA didn't design - that could very well be a reason it seems to work more smoothly.

ssj4Gogeta

Wacky in-order execution?

All the older and some current designs use in-order execution (Cortex A8, ARM11, Cortex A7, ...) because it's cheaper in terms of power consumption. In-order execution is simpler than out-of-order execution. What's wacky about Nvidia's design is the software-based binary translation. That software itself runs on the underlying CPU, however, and may not be more efficient than an out-of-order design.

deppman

"[The Shield Tablet] ... has way fewer pixels to push." The ST has about 73% of the pixels - not as big a difference as you might think (1920×1200)÷(2048×1536). I am Swype retyping on one right now. My wife like my first one so much I had to buy a second for myself. I think the 32GB/LTE model at $399 is the best android tablet currently available.

calden74

Agreed, I really like my Shield as well, defiantly one of the best Android tablets on the market. Even though the iPad is the defacto tablet, I just can't bring myself to buy one. The lack of full multitasking, not being a ble to choose the default apps that I want, like choosing Chrome over Safari, lack of a built-in file-manager that can mount all of my cloud and server storage, than have access to said storage via every app installed on the system, just horrible app communication, no wireless display support, no SD card slot, no HDMI out (which I use a lot), etc. The Shield is a fantastic tablet that fits my needs perfectly.

tralalalalalala37

multi-tasking is coming (and since redraw is faster, some argue multi tasking is better on iOS due to the superior chipset). Default apps is annoying, but actually rarely comes up as the OS gives you all the options on exactly how to open something. There are amazing file managers (GoodReader for example) that can do more than built in file managers because the developers focus on just that (the iPad is a bare bones swiss army knife of the apps available).

Profiles is a great point, hopefully iOS adds those. The iPad supports rokus/chromecast/apple tv/etc. so I'm not sure what you mean there. There are lightning USB external storage options now. Toshiba has a wireless HD that you can stream from. SD cards plug right in the lightning port with the adapter and the import rate is very fast.

tralalalalalala37

How does it run after half an hour of play when the chipset is overheated and throttling?

MrMLK

I have yet to run into a situation where is was overheating and throttling after any amount of play.

YMMV, but I have had no issues after extended times playing PPSSPP. Asphalt 8, Castle of Illusion, Portal, and a bunch of TDs.

roralhubu

All of those games run crazy smooth on the iPad Air 2 and are starting to take advantage of Metal. Was the shield much cheaper or something?

MrMLK

They also run crazy smooth on the Shield.

The shield had three advantages over the iPad Air 2:

1) The 128GB iPad Air 2/LTE is $829. The 160 GB Shield/LTE is $500 ($400+$100 for a 128 GB SD card).

2) I don't want to get into an iOS vs Android debate, but for me, Android is a better choice. There are a couple of Android only apps I use every day, and I like the ability to watch a video while I surf the web.

3) The Shield can be purchased with a dedicated game controller, which my kids love to play with.

roralhubu

All valid reasons. Will be interesting if Apple does something in combination with apple tv to make an awesome game platform. They should take advantage of the superior hardware (and better access to gpu instruction sets) to upend console gaming since their devices are getting powerful enough.

Sere83

yeah felt it in store today, definitely not good. I have heard good things about the shield tablet though despite the nVidia chipset, still think its one of the best budget options out there now that google have decided to stop making good value tablets.

Mattie

I'm in the same boat. I want to like this thing so much and android is just better than iOS for my purposes but the total lack of tablet support (many of my frequent use apps are buggy or not working at all) and the totally garbage build quality with high price tag are pushing me to the iPad. Google brought this upon themselves - who were they kidding?

For $100 more I can get the equivalent iPad air with 64gb of storage vs 32.

Donatom3

At least there is a built in hand warmer right by the rear camera. That should come in handy this winter. Not to mention it only has two modes, on or very hot. Me i'm thinking of just getting a surface pro 3 and replacing a laptop + large tablet with it.

LOL, if the Surface Pro 3 gets way hotter than an iPad ever thought of getting. There are literally people on the surface pro subreddit who buy usb fans to point at their devices. Take this from somebody who had one, it is a terrible device. Wait for the next one.

ThEGr33k

I like my Surface pro (1). Does get warm but not enough to be anywhere near uncomfortable...

Surface is certainly better than the iOS and Android offerings, it's a full OS after all.

I myself have always loved and wanted tablets, and I got a Nexus 7 (2012) back in the day. Then I got a laptop to replace the Nexus 7, but I felt like I missed something.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to sell the laptop and get a Surface Pro (#1). Now I seriously don't understand why so many people want to pay more for a device that's less powerful overall. I don't even want a tablet anymore - my Surface Pro is both my tablet and laptop computer.

Now I'm laughing at how I got a keyboard case for my Nexus 7 to try being productive.I simply couldn't. Definitely not compared to my current Surface Pro. I wasn't at all interested in the Nexus 9 even, despite being an Android fanboy overall.

ThEGr33k

Exactly. Seems us who are enlightened are few and far between... Glad you like yours!

Darwin

The surface is jack of all trades and master of none which is why its sales have been abysmal.

ThEGr33k

Master of Software... It has all x86 programs available, has some of the modern crap that are mobile software. It has a proper file structure, full multi tasking capability... Can take any USB peripheral, can be used to backup your other tablets. I'd say it is Master of most trades jack of a few. Find me something that the iPad is better at.

I'd put its poor sales down to Windows 8 (8.1 is so much better) being poor and MS/Windows severe lack of cool factor at the moment.

tralalalalalala37

Surface is not really a tablet though (due to fan). It competes with laptops.

ThEGr33k

Erm... Yea. Well I bought it as a tablet and use it as a tablet so... that makes it a tablet. Find me where it says that a tablet cannot have a fan!

tralalalalalala37

You walk around holding it one handed using it as a productivity device? wow!

ThEGr33k

Yes, why is that so hard to believe? It isn't come sort of CRT monitor.

(Note* I assume you mean hold it one handed while using it with the other hand... No one can use a tablet on the move 1 handed.)

tralalalalalala37

No I assumed you use totally one handed...

ThEGr33k

Cool. Can using Dragon. :) Ah the irony of bad sarcasm.

Donatom3

I'm sure the SP3 does get warmer than an iPad. I was of course talking about the heat coming off of the Nexus 9. The processor gets quite hot for just normal web browsing. At least with the SP3 we're talking about an Core i3-i7 processor, so that's to be expected.

mark

If the nexus 9 isn't so good, there are still loads of android alternatives. My nexus 7 is great, long battery life, fine build quality. And plenty of good app support. For larger devices, i prefer a much more functional but just as portable laptop or convertible (i have the Asus t100), but there are larger android devices beside the nexus 9.

mrjayviper

the point of getting nexus is to get fast updates which you are probably losing when getting an non-Google device. And when it comes to Android, which device has the most option and the best availability. I would guess this would be samsung.

I know everyone praises Apple for "superior build quality," but I honestly am not sure I agree. Their screens tend to break more easily, the aluminum is slippery, and they pretty much require a case.

I've got a Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1, and I actually (yes, really) prefer the build (plastic and all) to an iPad of any stripe. I like the grippy back, I like my clear screen, and I like my 10.1", 16:9 screen.

Aluminum is a soft metal, and it's not grippy. I'd rather have sturdy plastic with a textured back so I can grab the thing without feeling like I'm going to drop it. I keep my tablet in a sleeve, but I don't bother with a case that stays on all the time because I don't feel the need to. My brother has his iPad in a freaking life-proof case. *shrug* Those things are expensive. :-)

pedant

You might be talking about choice of build materials rather than build quality.

The flex and creaking noises that the Nexus 9 is reported to have would probably never plague an Apple device. I shun iOS like the plague but I have to tip my hat to Apple for their hardware.

Quinton

Oh, I don't disagree that the shell of the thing is pretty good, but Apple has historically had design problems too. I just don't understand why people tend to forget that. iPads have had heat problems, Wi-Fi problems, battery life issues, and things like that. You could bridge the antennae on an iPhone 4 with your thumb and signal would drop (this was tested in a Faraday cage in lab conditions by at least three sources, so it was an actual problem, and no, you didn't have to engulf the phone to make it happen).

I think that every manufacturer has its foibles and strengths. While Apple generally makes pretty good stuff, they're not perfect, and they're not the only ones. That's all I'm saying. :-) Yes, the Air 2 does feel better than the N9, build quality-wise. I agree 100%.

I still love my 16:10 AR though. :-)

Dinsy Jones

I've also got the Tab Pro 10.1 I actually despise its 16:10 aspect ratio, but I agree that the grippy back on it is actually really nice and more comfortable to hold that the iPad's.

Darwin

That is complete nonsense. Things are bad when you have to resort to making it up.

Nogib

I don't know. I had exceptional experiences with my Zune HD (Tegra 1) and Nexus 7 2012 (Tegra 3) devices. Very good SoCs in those!

Donatom3

I forgot about the Zune HD, that one ran great. I had issues with my 2012 Nexus 7, but none with the 2013 N7.

Nee Austin

I say the back of the white N9 feels like a plastic Sour Cream container. Cheap and flimsy and pops up. Every time I hold the N9 it reminds me I probably paid about $100 more than I should.

I really love 4:3 and 9" is quite nice, but the build is worse than the N7. (Again, I just can't get over how bad the back cover feels and fits)

Pretty sure the covers were manufactured ever so slightly too big, so they can't do anything else than bow out. Also the side plastic cutouts don't exactly align with the metal. The headphone jack plastic half is noticeably smaller than the metal half.

tralalalalalala40

Google sure benefits from android sheeple who have such low standards. No one makes money off of android except google.

Ryan

Same for me but extended to any non-qualcomm processor at this point (save for the customized moto chip). Even my N10, which is supposed to be better because of exynos or whatever studders and lags but my ancient Nexus 4 is still going strong today and people said that chip was outdated when it was released.

I will make an exception for the moto tweak because i have 3 friends with Moto Xs and all of theirs are just as "new" as my N4.

Mike

So, when every other publication in existence -- seriously, every one, no exceptions -- says that the N9 does get 9-ish hours of battery life, you can't just double down and go "mine doesn't" without investigating it more. Do you have a defective unit? Did you install a particular app that's killing your battery?

darkdude1

How do you measure battery on Android? Google crippled our ability to find more detailed information and the randomness of wakelocks vary from device to device and person to person. It's the one area Android must improve in, as some get 3-4 hrs SoT on their Nexus 5, whereas I barely get past 2 (and have not for some time). Apple absolutely wins hands down in that respect, but that's to be expected when they control the entire ecosystem top to bottom.

andy_o

I don't think anybody is getting 9 hours screen-on time in real-world usage (me included). I have had the N9 since launch day and used it daily, browsing and reading, and maybe a couple Futurama eps on NF, and it's perfectly consistent with the 5-6 hours SOT that others are experiencing. Those 9-hour figures are browsing benchmarks. There is something else going on when you actually use the tablet.

Battery benchmarks != observed battery life. I've heard from multiple people at this point who've bought them that 5 hours of screen-on time is what they're getting too.

These 9 hour+ figures come from browser "use simulation" scripts and video playback loops. They're objective, yes, but to say they reflect reality? No, and they never have. They're actually, I'd argue, counterproductive, because that's the same crap we see Apple and every other OEM citing when they talk about battery life. It's a bad metric. Objectivity in the face of clearly contrasting reality is not helpful.

Donatom3

My actual use has shown closer to the 5 hours of screen on time vs the 9 hours other places have quoted.

I noticed my battery starts draining quick when the hand warmer, I mean processor, gets to very hot temps just because it's having problems processing pages in Chrome. I can't wait to see Lollipop run on my Nexus 7 because I have a feeling it's going to run better there.
BTW I am not a hater. I really want to like the Nexus 9. Lollipop is great, it's the tablet itself I'm having a problem with.

Defenestratus

I've seen a bunch of people complain about the battery life on the N9. Its not just this site.

roralhubu

My N9 battery life is also about 4 hours. I will take it back. :( Maybe in 5 years android can compete with iOS, but in the tablet space you would be stupid to buy an android tablet now (burn me once!).

Jose Romero

Why can't Google just do a Chromebook Pixel of a tablet.

Matches Malone

Because Google tries to do too many things and these are the results.

Jose Romero

No, they can definitely do a high end tablet just like they did a high end Chromebook.

Matches Malone

That was 2 years ago and they haven't updated it since then. It was just another experiment by Google. All they do is experiment and we are the test subjects.

Jose Romero

It doesn't matter if it was 2 years ago, they can still do a high-end Android tablet.

Sere83

Literally said exactly the same thing last week. I'm an android user but i'm sorry google is a joke. The Nexus 9 is a shambles, to go directly against the ipad air with the same aspect ratio, practically the same screen res and a price that is not to far off with such weak software and hardware at launch shows google are completely out of touch. Just embarrassing, it will flop and i'm glad because hopefully it will make google take hardware and software more seriously and actually build a properly competitive product. Its just laughable that they think this kind of poor craftsmanship is acceptable at that price.

Jose Romero

Sometimes I wish I ran Google.

Epic Tea

I would laugh at you. Most people think they can do better until their in that persons shoes, then they realize how hard it actually is and that maybe that person is actually doing a good job compared to how crappy you would do.

Epic Tea

funny how People Act like the Nexus 9 is a Fail but I see countless posts from Nexus 9 users on Google + saying they have been enjoying their devices with little to no issues and think its a good solid tablet.

You and everyone else is being unrealistic over exaggerating things that aren't even issues.

tralalalalalala40

Did you read the article! N9 has been a disaster.

fredric

Weirdly enough, the first thing I anticipated upon hearing that HTC will be making the N9 was how superb the build quality would be.
I honestly haven't the slightest idea what went wrong.

Speaking software-wise issues, I believe Lollipop was released prematurely just to satisfy fans buying the new Nexus devices which itself caused much kinks to iron.

Overall, opinions are nothing but opinions, however one takes them is completely up to them : )

darkdude1

This year it feels the Nexus program hasn't lived up to it's usual expectations. Lack of stock, high prices, premature/delayed lollipop release, poor build quality...Not a good few months for Google to say the least.

Defenestratus

>>I honestly haven't the slightest idea what went wrong.

Probably a pain in the ass client. Google strikes me as a terribly schtizo client. Specifications probably changed more than once, and Google's insistence on forcing HTC to go outside their comfort zone with their own design language probably doesn't help. But lets not forget either, HTC's history with tablets is absolute garbage. We shouldn't be surprised honestly.

invinciblegod

Didn't HTC's only other tablet, the Flyer, have excellent full metal build quality?

Ammar

It did. I don't know why people say HTC is shit with tablets. Even their Jetstream was decent. The fact that both failed miserably in terms of sales is another argument.

someone755

While the Flyer wasn't a great performer (imo, at least), the build was amazing for a tablet.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

But it was heavy as hell

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

You are forgetting jetstream

Grayson

HTC, if anyone, should be good at working with and building things for clients. That's how they got their start before they started building their own phones.

tralalalalalala37

Agreed. With all these issues it's a surprise anyone is even trying to make a competitor. It's getting too expensive to compete with apple's in house SOC (Intel has already lost 8 billion trying to stem the tide).

pedant

The early batches of the HTC One (M7) had lots of build quality issues too. This might be a problem with HTC's manufacturing partners rather than HTC itself.

tom riddle

it's htc, so theres that. as soon as google chose them, i knew i would not be buying a new tablet this year.

"For a Nexus device, the screen is pretty good." Erm wait what? Nexus device usually have good displays. This, for its time is probably the worst Nexus display ever. Nexus devices tend to have very good screens for their time. Nexus One has a 254ppi AMOLED display when most phones had super crappy low res (non-ips) LCDs with poor colour - remember the screen on the 3GS anyone?

Nexus S was similar but a tad larger and had curved glass before such things were cool. Galaxy Nexus also with curved glass had a super AMOLED 720p when most devices were still 800x480 or 960x540. I could go through and list every Nexus device but you get the point. Nexus devices have always had some of the best displays around.

The Nexus 9 has a lower pixel density than all Nexus phones since 2011 onwards and both the Nexus 7 2013 and Nexus 10 (which was the highest resolution tablet on launch by a mile and still is better than most offerings). It also seemingly suffers backlight bleed and is 4:3 so you'll notice that bleed badly with the large black letterboxing when watching videos.

The Nexus 9 has a pretty decent display (especially colour and brightness) but for a Nexus device it is a fairly poor display as that is one front in particular they are usually pretty good on - in many cases the best for their time. I really don't think it is fair to say it is good "for a nexus" at all.

Mike

The original review of the N9 was full of random, undeserved digs at the Nexus line, too. Dude's a hater.

To be fair I usually like David Ruddock's stuff but I do think he's being hard on the Nexus Line with that comment. I'm seeing a lot of untrue Nexus hate recently.

It's like people who say Nexus cameras always suck and iPhone's have always had good cameras. Yeah right, try taking a picture on a 3GS and tell me how much better it is than current Nexus phone of the time (Nexus One). Looks more like a bloody G1 that thing while the Nexus One had a great camera for it's time (now terrible but it was 2010)!

Considering the 2013 N7 and N5, I think the N9 is still a step forward. The N5 had awful color and white cast at certain angles. The N7's display is quite dull, if you ask me. As for pixel density, that's a very weird point of comparison - phones versus tablets. It doesn't make any sense to compare them this way, you hold them at greatly different distances from your face. Tablets can have much lower DPI.

Yeah granted you would not need exact the same pixel density on a larger display for the same experience because of viewing distance - I probably made that point badly but those are much older devices which I feel sort of negates that viewing distance difference because expectations have changed. That point was probably still quite poorly explained but I am basically saying that the sharpest tablets are well into the territory of the sorts of pixel densities we were seeing on phones a couple of years ago. Even tablets at 10" are there so a 9" Nexus 9 isn't especially dense for a 2014 tablet whereas the old Nexus phones were very sharp for their time. Not saying it's bad but it's certainly worse not better.

Nexus 5 colour was a bit washed out but the colour calibration on the display was one of the more accurate of the phones out at the time - way better than most oversaturated Samsung's with messed up gamma for instance. Not saying it was a perfect display but it was pretty decent relative to other flagships of 2013 - certainly not poor. At 1080p it was lovely and sharp too.

The Nexus 7 2013 display is actually one of my favourite displays. Colours are great for me - probably better than any of my other devices. I've never heard anyone say anything bad about that panel before - looks much better than most tablets. It is also very sharp and has almost no noticeable back-light bleed.

Pootis Man

You must like over saturated displays then because both the nexus 5 and 7 have extremely well calibrated displays. I guess it's just personal taste.

No, but good calibration, no noticeable backlight bleed , decent brightness, good aspect ratio and a high pixel density to me is better than a lower pixel density, similar or slightly oversaturated display, backlight bleed and ratio which sucks for video content. That said I guess screens are somewhat subjective because people have different views on what they think 'looks good' so that view won't apply to everyone. And obviously aspect ratio just depends on whether you mainly use it for internet browsing or whether you use it for videos.

However, colour accuracy, brightness, viewing angles and pixel density are factors which can be measured so those areas are suitable for comparison on what is technically a "good display". And on those areas past Nexus devices have done well compared to other devices released around the same time.

MillennialsMakeLaws

You pwned him.

Alan

This is one of the most ridiculous thing I have read in a while.

Trysta

Really?! I have an iPad Air and I enjoy it a lot but I think my Nexus 7 2013 display looks better. It is crisper and has much better whites. Nexus 5 isn't quite as good but still very nice. The Nexus 7 2012 on the other hand had a terribly calibrated display so maybe I'm still recovering from that one.

Sir_Brizz

*shrug* I prefer my N5 and N7 display over anything else I've seen.

jcStrabo

The N7 looks dull? The N7 is pretty much the gold starndard for mobile displays in term of colour accuracy, and the N9 isn't far behind. That's how colours really look like.

Matti

I have no complaints about my 2013 Nexus 7. Considering the low relative cost, it's done it's job well enough. Screen, speed, build is pretty acceptable. Still no iPad, but an order of magnitude better at everything (except battery life) than the 2012 Nexus 7 and its slow NAND.

One thing I'm surprised about is your lack of performance on the year-old iPad Air 1, though. What gives? I thought an iDevice would be smooth and lag-free for at least two iOS version changes.

I'd just like to note that the Nexus 4's display is awful. That is all.

Grayson

The only two Nexus displays that I would consider good are the N5 and N7 2013, though the N5 doesn't have great contrast and has an annoying white cast from certain off axis angles. I didn't own a Nexus 1, so it may have been good for its time, but I thought the Nexus S, G-Nex, and Nexus 4 displays were all average for their times at best.

someone755

I'd add the 2012 N7 to your list.
The N5 and new N7 are miles ahead. At least the units I've used were.

Nexus S was nice but nothing spectacular. It was on par with the best but no better (by the end of 2010 when it came out most phones were on fairly even ground).

Galaxy Nexus was pretty nice on launch. After a few months everyone had high-res displays but it was one of the first device to go into the HD range and it also was very large for it's time as it introduced onscreen buttons. Bare in mind it came just after the Galaxy S2 which had a 800x480 display. It was pretty amazing by comparision.

The Nexus One was absolutely stunning compared to other phone's on release.

Nexus 4 was very nice too although probably a similar situation to the Nexus S I guess (maybe slightly better relativity) but I think some people got unlucky as the first Nexus 4's produced were a bit hit and miss with some people getting sub-par screens.

The best displays for their time were the Nexus One, Nexus 7 2013 and Nexus 10 which were all fantastic. Then next you have the Nexus 5 which was pretty early to 1080p displays and had better colour calibration than most Android phones of last year. Then the Galaxy Nexus which pushed us to 720p. Nexus 4 and Nexus S probably next as they were only slightly above average.

Finally you have the Nexus 7 2012 who's display was almost exactly average.

The Nexus 9 probably fits around the Nexus 4/Nexus S scale in terms of quality for its time maybe worse. And the Nexus 6 is another great display.

On average across the line Nexus devices have displays above the average for pretty much any other phone line. Galaxy screens are usually way oversaturate colours and have the same or lower resolution than the Nexus from the same year. LG have been pretty good but only on their more recent stuff since 2012 when they started working on the Nexus 4 and have got better each year but have not exceeded the Nexus line on any year. iPhone's have only now gone HD although they are usually well calibrated.

The longshot is this: Nexus devices typically have very nice displays. Sometimes only a bit above average sometime the best on the market. However, the Nexus 9 is one of weaker displays as far as Nexus line goes and the Nexus line is certainly not any sort of reference for devices with bad displays. Therefore the statement in the article was inaccurate, misleading and unfair.

DonPorazzo

What's wrong with the nexus 4 display?

carlisimo

It's blueish and washed out. Anandtech accused it of not having been calibrated at all! It's fine in other regards.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Lol nice joke Artem

Oh wait, you're serious?

DonPorazzo

Yeah, maybe it is a little blueish but calling it awful is a little harsh, don't you think so, Artem?

Awful? Really? I have a Nexus 4 and it's display is great. Not as good as the N7 2013 but then I still find hardly anything is. However, I think the panels varied a bit in early production because I have previously held mine up to a friends Nexus 4 and they looked totally different. His had a horrible yellowish tint and whites looked horrible whereas mine was fine. The difference was quite severe. Most other Nexus 4's I have seen looked like mine though but I do remember some people online complaining about the Nexus 4 having a similar issues around on launch so maybe I just got lucky (or you were unlucky).

I think it generally it was a pretty good display but because LG were finding it hard to meet production requirements at first, a load of LCD panels which would not normally pass Q&A standard ended up in the wild.

Guess you must have got one of the bad ones then. That's unfortunate. I'm pretty picky about displays so I don't think my N4 would have lasted had it been one of them - I would have got an RMA for it straight away.

I don't know how my friend put up with his so long. He broke the battery in his when he left it connected to a dodgy power supply on his boat and the swelling of the battery damaged the display and so got it replaced by LG anyway in the end and the new panel it looks just like mine.

Matti

The glass in front is nothing compared to the glass on the back, though. It's as slippery as two eels copulating in a bucket of snot, and has this mysterious ability to slide off a completely level table.

Fanaticalism

IMO, Best review I've read. Straight to the facts and no holding punches on either side.

Gucci Willis

iOS looks like 1979

Albert A. Windom

1979 what?

tralalalalalala37

But when you click the apps you are transmitted to 2015 :) The OS is just an app picker, and the apps are amazing in iOS (and catching up in Android)............

roralhubu

True. Android will catch up in 2+ years hopefully on app quality, but iOS is still king. In the tablet space, iOS is emperor level.

Badouken

I love my nexus 9 but the battery is not good... I had 5 and a half hours of screen on time with heavy usage. It only got worse when I started turning settings off like syncing ! Hopefully an update will help or custom kernels

bhake

Since going with the larger screen phones with larger batteries the last couple years (Note 2, OnePlus, maybe Nexus 6), I've been using my tablets less and less. My wife uses the Nexus 10, and I don't even miss it anymore. The old iPad 2 issued from work just collects dust. Nexus 7 2013 sits on my nightstand as I use my OnePlus in bed. The large screen, LTE when on the road, portability (pocket sized), faster to type on, plus all day battery... I actually get more work done on the fly and consume more content in my spare time with the larger phones than a tablet. But that's just me. Anyone else experiencing the same thing?

dude

I thought about buying the Nexus 6 to use as my home tablet and back up phone, but the photo quality didn't look any better than the OnePlus (they share the same sensor, but the N6 have OIS and updated camera API). I couldn't justify $750 for the N6 being a phone I won't use as my daily driver (due to size). I'm still interested, but maybe when the price drop.

bhake

I wouldn't put too much stock in side by side photos online. If you touch to focus on a slightly different pixel, the light metering could be completely different for what appears to be the same shot. OIS will have it's advantages in low light. Google's camera app with HDR+ mode tends to be more realistic (pretty impressive on my Nexus 5) than the other HDR modes that tend to be over exposed (ie Oneplus from my experience). However, Clear Image mode in Oneplus is awesome, just takes too long to process. Regardless, it's all subjective in the end and I get what you are saying. Money aside, I see myself using a 5.5-6.0" phone for everything (work and play), now that I am use to these size phones.

Epic Tea

i usually don't like big phones but after seeing my wife completely stop using her ipad mini after getting her note 3 I am considering the Nexus 6 as my next phone coming form the Nexus 5. I don't think tablets are really useful anymore especially when you can get a laptop or chromebook for the same price or even less.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

Except that Chromebooks are essentially useless for productivity focused people

Ryan

I'm the biggest Android fan, but in all honesty, I don't think a single Android Tablet has EVER beaten the iPad. Phones? Android wins. Tablets? Apple wins.

Andrew

I live in a house where I have iPads all around me. Even had to set up a ton of them at a local school for the kids. I'm pretty friggin happy with my 2013 Nexus 7. Build, display, battery life. Its just an awesome tablet. They totally could have charged more. The iPads were a nightmare experience to setup for the school and took way longer than it should have.

I will admit, though. The iPad air tablets are just so much nicer than any Android Tablet out right now, but thats because no-one has the balls to make a quality large tablet to rival them and charge near what the iPads costs. Everyone wants to make something cheap, so when it doesn't sell well, it isn't a huge financial loss. HTC did shoot themselves for putting their name on the Nexus 9. It looks terrible and I have yet to read 1 good review.

With the build quality Motorola has come up with lately on phones, I'm actually excited if they were to make a tablet again. The Xoom looked cheap... old Motorola. I hope they don't change now that they are officially owned by Lenovo (not that the ThinkPads are terrible... but it wasn't their idea... thank IBM for those laptops).

Ryan

I agree the second Nexus 7 was a quality tablet for the price. It's still beaten hands down by the iPad Air though when it comes to design and the actual ecosystem. The screenshots in this article prove the point that apps just aren't made as well for Android tablets. This is probably why the school were using iPads in the first place. Sure they might have been a pain to set up initially but I bet once they were there were plenty of high quality educational tablet apps in the app store.

I do think you have a point though that perhaps part of the reason that developers don't make good apps for Android tablets is because a lot of Android tablets themselves aren't that good. The Android Tablet market is over-saturated with terrible products, developers aren't going to spend time making beautiful looking apps if half their audience are running it on a £100 tablet from Tesco's.

Andrew

To be honest. The iPads are a horrible idea for education. Wasted money that a Chromebook would be better suited for. You mean to tell me that a kid is going to do their research on an iPad and type their report on one of those. And don't forget what a joke Pages is for a word processor. Until 2 days ago I couldn't edit and save a .doc file. Huge waste of money. The school is now looking for a new IT guy now since he also couldn't be available to help set them up. The laptops that they also had to order since the iPads weren't sufficient are sitting in a box waiting to be setup as well. Thats probably where my weekend will go.

Ryan

Okay fair point, I agree iPads are a huge waste of money for schools. They aren't as practical as laptops you're right, although that was never really my argument. My argument was just that they'll have better school related apps than an Android tablet will.
Admittedly I've never actually even tried pages, but why wouldn't you just use Word since that's available for iPads?
You have my sympathies over the weekend though, good luck with that!

The other factor is that with Google's services nearly all running with feature parity on the iPad, that's one less compelling reason to deal with the shortcomings of Android tablets. It's a shame too, because I still think Android is the better OS in general.

roralhubu

Google should pull their services from iOS if they really care about Android and want to compete.

Google would never give up the massive iOS user base. Don't forget, Google is still an advertisement and content selling company.

roralhubu

But that would force iOS users to go to high end Android phones as apple maps is horrible.

liam

2013 N7.

Dan1ve

I love the build quality and excellent standby time of iPads.
However, I simply can't get along with iOS :p

Defenestratus

Oh, I love being right. How I love being soooo soooo right. When the first rumblings of the 4:3 ratio came out, I proclaimed that google was purposely killing their tablet marketshare. Why would ANYONE... buy an android tablet with the exact same form factor as the tablet industry leader? You don't get ahead by badly imitating the guy in front, especially when they're clearly more focused on details than HTC and Google were.
I feel that all of Android development has gone way downhill since Sundar took it over. We have a schizophrenic design philosophy, Android product lines that die on the vine (silver), and just a clear lack of focus on making remarkable products that are seen as more than just cheap alternatives to Apple.

Epic Tea

dumbest and most inaccurate comment I have ever read in my life.

AuroraFlux

I'm extremely proud of you and Android Police for doing this sort of subjective review. It took a long time to finish, but it was worth it.

All too often the majority of Android fans like to act like 7 year-olds whenever Apple is mentioned, and is often shocked to hear that you don't absolutely HATE them and everything they stand for just like they do.

With this comparison, you've proven to me that there are people out there not like that, and you've earned my respect and reader-loyalty for it.

Please keep doing what you're doing. Thank you!

sssgadget

Seriously. AP has shown themselves to be the only Android news blog that takes itself seriously. They consistently produce new, useful, substantiated content. I don't see many other android journalists (or even other journalists in other fields) do as fantastic of a job as you guys do.

The APK teardowns, fantastic sources of information. Don't see others doing this. You don't just post "Oh boy i think this is happening rumor rumor rumor." You go through the code line by line to see what it could mean. That's dedication.

Every week, the "x apps of the week." Awesome! What a great way to find apps. Original reviews, insightful and honest opinions, I love it!

All other general news. Always original content. Rarely do I see recycled "this rumor happened" and "this is coming out" like I do from literally every other blog.

Basically, what I'm trying to say, is thank you so much for putting out actual content. Thank you for not trying to get pageviews from "hot" titles and "latest rumors!" Thank you for trying to get pageviews from writing solid articles and putting thought into almost every post.

My respect for AP doubled with this post. I was in similar position last week and bought iPad Air 2, I was ashamed to write it here as others would just bash me on this.
I hope Google reads this and emphasize on improving the future tablets.
I am Android fan and this iPad Air 2 is my first Apple product, it has few limitations over Android but what it does, i does it well.

bearballz

Have to agree. As much as I am a fan of Android, Apple does a pretty good job with the iPad.

I just bought an iPad Air 2 over the weekend and while it's taken a few days to get over my issues with iOS, it's performance has been impressive.

elijahblake

I have been on the fence about the nexus 9 LTE, but this review pretty much just ended the desire for it. I use to have an iPad 3G for work which I hated probably mostly because it was 3G (this was only about 6 months ago). But I really didn't like iOS, probably because I've been using Android since it came out, but i find that some things just take longer to do in iOS, not much longer maybe a click or two.

But the main thing that keeps me from choosing an iPad, other than price, would be iTunes!!! I hate having to install that on my computer.

Also, as the iPad I had was work only.. I'm worried about how well Android/iOS would work together having an Android phone

Darwin

Why is it that Android fans STILL don't know that iTunes hasn't been required for iPhones and iPads in years?

I waited to get the Nexus 9 and oped for he Nexus 5 than stead. Google need to know they fell short and we aren't having it! Great read.

Munkyxtc

I just want the best possible product available. Admittedly I love Android and don't own any iOS devices (previous ipad & iphone user) but I do admit there are some quality issues with hardware. Apple usually nails its with build quality.

There is no denying that Android has made iOS better and that iOS has also made Android better. While these two big OS's keep battling it out to be the best we as consumers all win.

mobilemann

where the fuck did all these reasonable commenters come from?

Ryan

I think any sane Android fan can tell that, while the OS platform has its advantages, the hardware on the tablet front has always been terrible compared to Apples. The phones, for some reason, they have figured out how to compete but Apple still owns the tablet space.

tralalalalalala37

A majority of the world will have smartphones in the near future. Tablets are a luxury device for the west (which is where Apple competes better).

Ryan

This is true, but I live in the west and like using my (android) tablet. When I travel its impossible to beat the big screen and when home its far handier than powering up (and having to sit at) my computer. So its probably my second most used internet enabled device behind my phone (and at home is probably equally used for that purpose).

The girlfriend also loves using it (which is nice since Android supports multiple accounts). Its the recipe machine.

So in the same breath you call them iSheep and condemn them for attacking Android users.

Mel Gross

Sigh! There'so always one in a crowd, isn't there? I sure hope the 5th grade writing in your post, HTC, is intentional. If not, as I suspect, I'm sorry for you.

miri

I'm curious as to how this comparison will be a year from now. Though Material just launched a lot of the software issues we're seeing are still from the Holo era making it largely a comparison involving the same issues we've had for ages just on a new device.

me me

Thanks for the thorough review.

*IF* your usage patterns suit the iPad air size and ratio then the N9 is more inferior on build quality than it is lower in price.

My daily use tablet is a refurbished N10 paid $279. Nothing since has dislodged it for me. The N7 wins bang/buck but I find the size of the Gpad 8.3 or similar tab s 8.4 is best for me and less than half the cost.

Mlibbey

IT'S 2014 Q4, WHY IS THE TABLET LAGGING!? IT'S ALSO THE MOST EXPENSIVE NEXUS TABLET, WHY IS BUILD QUALITY NOT AMAZING!? HOW IS BATTERY SO BAD ON A TABLET!? HOW IS THE SCREEN NOT THE BEST!?? HONESTLY....WHAT IS HAPPENING! Capslock off

Defenestratus

Its google. They don't sweat the details/refinement as much as Apple. That much should be clear by now.

Epic Tea

a simple fix with a software update. ios has lag or dropped frames and no one points those out.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

You can't fix the price and the build quality with a software update though

Mark Washington

Great Article ... I agree with it very much so! Although I sold my iPad 3 and got a Nokia 2520 ... Sold that after the annoying problems (Nokia 2520 is a nice windows tablet) and was looking at getting a Surface pro 3 and actually bought one with the keyboard day 1 from best buy , but returned it because I couldn't justify the price 1200 dollars .... Instead , and don't laugh at me, I got the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 with a Logitech Pro keyboard. In my opinion this is the best tablet experience and I love the multi tasking with 4 windows plus pop up pen window . It feels like I am using a windows PC but I couldn't ask for a better Google integrated system .

Defenestratus

I have the Galaxy Tab Pro 12.2 and I love it. It does suffer from "jank" a bit from time to time but thats because of Touchwiz I'm pretty sure.

andy_o

David, a couple of things that might also be relevant re: iOS8 vs Lollipop:

Safari now has Lastpass support (and other extensions), something that Chrome on Android doesn't even offer. On the other hand, there is Firefox on Android. On the other other hand, it appears to be buggy on Lollipop (some sites are sloooow to load and seem to use CPU a lot).

Also, Android can now connect with external USB DACs and speakers, it can even power them. Logitech V20 speakers work out of the box, though not as loud as on a laptop.

Nathan Walters

I've been using Lastpass with Chrome for almost a year now, I'm not sure where you got your information from. That being said, the experience is kind of janky, so I wonder if iOS did it better.

Ah yeah I remembered, you need to enable app autofill, it's not really a browser extension. The problem is I have that disabled cause it has performance issues (for instance, scrolling on some apps becomes stuttery). I think there are a couple of comments on that announcement post, and the problem is still there with my N5, though with the N9 is not as noticeable, but I don't wanna be guessing every time I see a stutter if it's LP's fault.

jcStrabo

I use Firefox in my Android devices, which comes with Lastpass support. Why stick with Chrome?

andy_o

Firefox, is that the browser I mentioned in my post?

Henrique Persechini

"I could let my first Air sit for a week untouched and battery gauge would barely budge - maybe a few percent. Android has never been great about this, and it doesn't seem to be getting much better."

This I really wish was the focus with android development (and OEM battery quality choices), having to worry about batterry unshure if your device will last untill the end of a working day for me is a fault so big (plus the ridiculous battery life claims from tech specs of most if not all android devices) that my reasons for staying with android as my mobile system is more in the realm of money and affection than features and usability

Nathan Walters

I'd say that OEM battery quality is almost a non-issue compared to Android's piss poor handling of standby.

tralalalalalala40

#gapgate2014

Nogib

Why do people continually makes such a big deal out of the "back flex" on the Nexus 9? Nexus 10 had the exact same thing two years ago and I heard nothing compared to the amount of outright bitching over the 9.

Really? Mine doesn't flex much at all. I didn't realise anyone had that issue with the Nexus 10. I'm not saying none of them do, just that I've never used one that did and, like you, also never heard anyone complain about it.

PhineasJW

Just going to wager a guess that people complain about it flexing because it feels disgusting and flimsy and broken and unlike everything a solid object should feel?

I have an original Nexus 7 that creaks all over when I press on the back. I hate it.

Anybody can make a tablet that flexes and creaks like warped plastic.

The trick is making one that doesn't.

Donatom3

Flex is one thing, and the N9 is worse than flex. Someone put it better than I did. The Nexus 9's back feels like sour cream container lid.

Cheeseball

Now that (container lid-like) is a good comparison with the rear panel. I experience the same effect on my Nexus 5, but it is a lot sturdier despite it.

They should've gone with a solid plastic panel like on the Galaxy S II/III or the LG G2.

Kenny Woodard

The iPad A2 just took a giant sh*t on the Nexus 9. Let's not kid ourselves.

Nogib

Lets be honest here though, HTC hadn't made a tablet in ages whereas Apple has been refining them year after year. I think HTC's lack of experience is showing here.

Kenny Woodard

HTC had plenty of time to get their act together though. Google should have never signed off on this pathetic attempt at a tablet. If HTC wasn't ready to make a decent tablet Google should have looked elsewhere. At $400, this tablet is a joke.

Nogib

No doubt. There is no value at the current price whatsoever.

mrjayviper

not HTC's fault imho. As others have said, Google chose to sign off on this. They are in control on what gets released as a Nexus device.

Scott Russ

It sure did. I got a lot of abuse on here for saying that a couple of weeks back, but the iPad Air was already the obvious choice to someone who is not a techie and now we're being shown why it should appeal to us, too. The Nexus 9 has the primary con of the Nexus series (poor build quality) without the biggest pro (cheap for the spec), and I will almost definitely never buy Nexus again unless one of those is addressed for next year's devices. Which they won't be. Going to have to be Sony/Moto from now on.

jcStrabo

I can hold the N9 in my handspan. I can't hold the iPad Air 2 in my handspan. The N9 is the better choice for me because of this alone. Add to it that I hate metal backs (slippery, cold), don't like iOS and have not a single issue except light-bleed (which is negligible and is also something my iPad has) the decision is pretty easy for me. N9 again in a heartbeat. I just wished they had done 32/64 GB for the same price, then it would also be a good value proposition.

Epic Tea

finally someone with a brain comments.

tralalalalalala37

So the N9 is your phablet phone that you use one handed?

Epic Tea

thats your opinion not a fact. ios what most Android users don't like it has nothing to do with Build quality.

Peter Farac

Has there actually been one good nexus device though?

Epic Tea

Nexus 9 is a good device all these "Cons" are really just people over exaggerating. Also the Nexus 7 2013, Nexus 10 and Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 are all good devices.

Peter Farac

Agreed on the nexus 7, but that's because it doesn't really have any competition at that screen size. The Nexus 4 and 5 were rubbish with key problems that were only excusable because of the low price. I've always considered a Nexus, but I never could justify buying one, even for the lower price....because realistically it is a device you keep for many years.

Epic Tea

what problems did the Nexus 4 and 5 have? I have a Nexus 5 I could buy any device I want to right now but I have tried them all from every single OEM and the Nexus 5 has been the most pleasant experience. Its Only drawback is the battery but even then I still get a good solid full day out of it.

There is not a single flagship out their that doesn't have some drawback.

Mark Washington

Here is my props to the iPad. My first tablet was the HP Touchpad, Sold that for a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1..... The list goes on and on too many to list including Nook, Nexus 7, ect... The point is I never had a tablet as long as using an iPad (3) before selling and getting something else and a lot has to do with the lagg that android OS experiences and it seemed to me like each release of a new flagship got a little better with optimization not to mention Android OS . I absolutely do not like Apple just because ... Yes I am one of them ... My wife on the other hand likes Apple which is why I tried an IPad 3 retina after getter her the 64 GB model I took her 16gb just to try it out and cut through some of the prejudice . One thing I didn't do is invest in the ecosystem because I already got burned dealing with webOS. But to make long story short I had the iPad for the longest time out of all the previous tablets I have owned . (edit: including current tablet Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2... Good to be back on Android)

Qbancelli

I don't trust any so called Android blogger who uses an iPad. Sorry.

This is the same guy that hates the Moto 360.

Probably a closet Apple fan.

Emile’sGhost

Yeah, won't trust a comment from an asshole either.

Danny

Thanks David for doing this! I still remember asking you to do a comparison and I thought it wouldn't ever happen!!

If you don't like Google Chrome, you can download Firefox on the Nexus. Of the 3 personal assitants, Apple Siri is the worst and so is Apple Maps. Google Now can be downloaded on iOS. Google Maps is much better than Apple. Also, some apps are made exclusively for the iPad and not available on Android. What I hate is most stores like Best Buy keep advertising and have sales for the iPad and not the Nexus tablet.

Emile’sGhost

Well no shit, you can d/l another browser, you're missing the point. He's testing stock browsers, not anything else. Pay attention.

Qbancelli

I say we send this closet Apple fanboy to write for iMore.

Emile’sGhost

Truth hurts, doesn't it?

Epic Tea

do you really think Android users sit around wishing they had the ipad? lol Most Android users use Android because they don't like ios its that simple.

Also this comparison is kind of dumb when the ipad air 2 16gb starts at $100 more than the Nexus 9 thats $100 more into improving the devices build quality which is really its only drawback everything else is not an issue. ios 8 had all kinds of problems fixed with an update same thing with any software issues on the Nexus 9 a update can fix performance and battery.

What Android Tablets are 16:9, I'm quite certain just about every one of them is 16:10 :) But nitpicking aside I agree, 4:3 is better on larger tablets.

jcStrabo

2:3 is the perfect tablet format. 4:3 is acceptable. 16:10 is ok if it's maximum 8". Love the real estate of my Nexus 10, but it' s not really useable in portrait mode.

tushar

The ipad air 2 would be the best tablet of the decade if it ran lollipop 5.0.
Ps i own an ipad4th gen. I see apps crashing randomly(9gag,chrome,facebook,and yes safari the builtin browser also crashes quite oftenly).

Andrew

No mouse support. Didn't you get gorilla arm from typing this and touching the screen? No? you used the onscreen keyboard... That must have sucked. Thanks for putting up with that nightmare to give us this article!

andy_o

iOS doesn't, but Android does have mouse support. What's ironic is that Android works with the Apple Magic Trackpad, multitouch and everything.

Andrew

I know :). My company gave us an iPad to use during ICU rounds. It was a terrible experience with a Bluetooth keyboard and a stylus. We have a shitty laptop that cost half as much, works 10x better.... That was until one of my coworkers smushed the screen bringing it back to be charged by closing the lid with her personal iPad in the middle.

tralalalalalala37

Don't need a mouse with dictation writing :)

sd

we lost android comrades. :(

Kevin Aaronson

Well, if I was a richer man I'd probably be immersed in the apple ecosystem as well, them iPads is slick.

Sir_Brizz

Well, dang. I broke the screen on my N7 over the weekend and I was trying to decide if I want a N9 or not and I guess I really don't. You can get the 2013N7 16gb on eBay for around $100 so I think I might snag one of those and replace the screen on mine with that (is it a freaking shock that this is cheaper _and easier_ than replacing the screen? :/)

CyberPunk

True about the iOS smoothness in animations. I have a keen eye for frame rates and could make a good estimation with the naked eye. It's just RIGHT THERE for you to see anywhere it takes action in iOS. I tried, out of interest, a numerous times to find sources on Apple's technology with animations and OpenGL, I found nothing. (please share a link if you have something). Lately, I started to think that it could the refresh rates of Android display panels. I say that because there's nothing, I say nothing, that can be on my Nexus 5's display and feels like it was 60/fps all the way. If my experience in PC monitors has any relation to mobile devices, then I believe it's got to be input lag and refresh rates that keep Android devices from that perception of 60/fps smoothness (I think explains some of the underwhelming reception of Project Butter). I use a PC monitor with 96Hz refresh rate and extremely low input lag. Watching this video on this monitor makes me wish so bad that Android 5.0 looked this smooth on my Nexus 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R-0opbpbww

Epic Tea

my kids ipad mini lags like crazy. the iphone 6 + had lag and dropped frames. Also Lollipop just came out. ios 8 had all kinds of issues on launch Give Google time they will fix these issues no problem.

CyberPunk

No. I'm not talking about occasional jitter. I know it occurs in iOS quite often. I'm saying it seems that the quality of Android displays are also to blame for lack of "gliding" animations. The funny thing about displays is that we can't judge them unless they're viewed on the panel they were meant to be seen on. Try casting an Android screen to a good TV. Suddenly, everything is ultra smooth on the TV.

While I think this comparison is generally even-handed, I can't help feeling that it is too early to compare the software. iOS 8 has already gone through multiple upgrades to correct performance, security, etc. issues. A simple Google search will verify that iOS 8.0 had it's fair share of problems at launch (even on the Air 2, but especially with older devices). It took a while before it was in its current state. It would have served the readers better to hold off on comparing the software until at least some attempts by Google have been made to smooth things out. The build quality comparisons are totally valid. Software will be updated, but hardware is fixed at the quality when purchased...unless you exchange...which provides little guarantee of improvement. It's probably just me, but I could care less about the design aesthetics...unless it's related to build quality. It's a tool, nothing more.

asdtfdr

Air 2 was released with iOS 8.1, and has not received an update since.

I bought the original iPad and thoroughly disliked it. I sold it and bought the Asus Transformer Prime. That was a disaster. After a year of using it, I dumped it. I then bought the Nexus 10 and just loved it. I still have it and use it often. My next tablet was the 2012 Nexus 7. I loved it as well for the first few months and then it got completely unusable. Jelly Bean with TRIM support fixed it. But then I bought the 2013 Nexus 7 and that's been my favorite tablet.

There is just no way I'm going back to an iPad. It may be great hardware, but the OS is just too limiting. To me the work flow on iOS is so inefficient, that it trumps everything else. Does the browser still refresh every time you switch away and back again after a while? The fact that apps don't update in the background drives me nuts. I'll take the battery hit. I don't want to pick up my tablet and *then* be told I have updates.

Mathias

Yeah... because nothing has happened with IOS in the almost 5 years that have passed since you sold your iPad1. ;)

I suggest you try IOS8, the stuff you're complaining about simply isn't true at all. In addition to that, a lot of things have been sorted out. I love Android, but i think that IOS is great too these days.

Bruce

I was just referring to tablets. I continued using my iPod Touch for a few years. Sold that one as well since I couldn't stand iTunes. But to stay relevant, I decided to use iPhone 5s as my daily driver while I was between the LG G2 and the G3. That was just 3 months ago. I didn't last longer than 3 weeks. If I had to describe my experience in one word, it would be "frustrating".

You are right that iOS8 has added many features that were especially pain points for me - keyboard being a major one. Inability to choose default apps. Refreshing of web pages when I go back to it, caused by lack of real background multithreading (LinkBubble), lack of access to file system etc. It's been that way for a very long time with iOS. I have played with Lollipop on my Nexus 7 and like I said, I can't even think of going back to iOS now.

tralalalalalala37

Developers will take more and more advantage of the A8x and Metal so we will soon see a divergence in what can be done on iOS tablets since no one can compete profitably with what Apple is making. The Air 2 is hundreds of times better than the iPad 1 :)

EH101

It's just stupid how much screen is wasted by the nav buttons/bar. Looks absolutely terrible in most of those photos.

Epic Tea

it is odd that Google doesn't offer some kind of pie control option.

EH101

As an option, pie controls would be great. If they were default, the common user would despise the tablet I'm sure. They definitely need to come up with something, though.

Epic Tea

Well if Custom Roms can offer Pie Control Options I don't see why stock can't.

jcStrabo

Which doesn't matter in about any App except games or movies. And then it's removed. Love OSB, hate the quad-duty iPad Home Button (five different functions on the iPhone now - what a joke).

Epic Tea

Is his ios Police or Android Police?

Seriously I don't want to see ios crap on a dedicated Android site, if your going to include non Android crap Change your Name to something mutual. I don't go to imore or 9to5 Mac to read about Android do I?

The Verge, technoBuffalo and others have every right to talk about both Platforms but Don't freaking call your site "Android Police" if your going to keep doing this kind of crap.

ipads are overrated, the Build quality is nice but thats it, I've owned my fair share of ios devices heck I have been using Apple computers for 10 years I in no way hate Apple or their products.

1. Build Quality - Not a Real Issue IMO its build is Similar to the Nexus 7 2013 which had a good solid build. Also the ipad Air 2 cost $100 - $200 more than the Nexus 9 thats more money towards better build.

2. Performance - ios 8 had all kinds of issues out the gate, anything software side can be fixed with an update including its optimization for the K1.

3. Battery Life - I have been hearing mixed results for this. My nexus 5 had horrible battery life for 2 weeks but after that Battery Life Improved a lot this is another thing that can be improved with an update.

4. Tablet Apps - How is this Google's Fault??? Blame the Devs. Non Optimized ios apps look HORIFFIC. The Ones on Android actually Scale well and most the popular apps are optimized. I own an ipad Mini and the tablet app versions don't add much of anything useful to be honest.

5. Chrome Vs Safari - Safari is horrible at multitasking especially on ios it constantly reloads pages I haven't had any issues with Chrome on a Tablet especially since the updates its been getting.

DriftSlave

This is Android Police, not Android Fanboy Police. These guys are dedicated to their jobs in giving us new on everything Android related, that includes reviews and comparisons to the competition and seeing how Android stacks up against them.

Sorry if you don't like comparisons, people have opinions...deal with it or go somewhere else. That's all there is to it because these guys aren't going to stop because you don't like iOS.

Epic Tea

i don't have a problem with comparisons. But don't say you are one thing and do the other. If I want comparisons to the ipad I can find them everywhere else on non Android websites.

The Verge did the Same thing with the Nexus 9 review I wanted to hear about the Nexus 9 but they mentioned apple 28 times and it was more like a comparison video than a review.

Be and Do what you say your gonna do. I'm no fanboy either I appreciate Tech In General wether it be ios, mac os, android, windows or windows phone.

andyH

You have obviously not used the ipad air 2 as that has 2gb of RAM and Safari no longer reloads. It loses about 2% overnight at the worse, where my previous Tab S would sometimes lose 15%, until I had to change numerous settings. Still loses about 8%. The screen on the air 2 is brilliant and with the new anti glare coating is brilliant outdoors. Most of the apps are optimised for a tablet and nearly all are now optimed for ios 8. That's very fast adoption by developers. Productivity wise what can android do better than an I pad? If you want to work then get a Surface Pro. Most consumers use a tablet for consumption not productivity, I use my mac book air if I need to be productive. Ios kills android on a tablet, it's as simple as that. Microsoft tried to compete with their surface iteration, I forget it's name, and Google has also failed. Their one advantage was selling them cheap and taking a small margin. This was no business model and had to end, now we can have a fair comparison, and truths can be heard. This is good, as it will drive improvements in the top tier android tablets. The Sony Z3 is brilliant and kills the Nexus 9 and is a true competitor for the air 2.

Epic Tea

people said the note 3, galaxy s4 and galaxy s5 were crap just because it was made of plastic. But that comes down to personal preference, Some people don't mind, otherwise this is a Great Tablet, all his other complaints had to do more with Software which can easily be fixed and should be excusable considering Lollipop just came out and all software on any platform will have issues out the gate.

tralalalalalala37

If the software issues can easily be fixed then they would be finished now.

sguyx

i have air1 and 1gig is way too little... air2 has 2gig as it should have been in air1. air1 was a mistake and it was replaced by air2 with larger ram. apple never fixed safari, it is still terrible any device having 1gig ram. and what comes to build quality, my air1 seems to be better than air2. i havent found any air2 without screen distortions. none. and i have been in several stores. i definitely would like to replace my air1 by air2 but i dont want to get screen distortions and sound vibrating. still it is lottery with apple: will you get a decent screen or a screen with problems. a lottery on year 2014 and people are yet telling stories about premium quality... either those people are blind or they refuse to see errors in their high price devices... surely they are device that are ok, but it is still a game with apple and a cheap lcd technology.

manish

David Ruddock, saw ur posts on g+ and bought a ipad air 2 =D

mjay

It's amazing how it just fails to mention what a buggy performer iOS 8.1 is. It has issues with multitasking gesture, safari freezing and spotlight searches to name a few (some of these can be reproduced 100% of the time) but nowhere these problems get a mention. I myself bought and sadly, returned the iPad air 2 and I'm back to iPad air. I like iPad air a lot but facts have to be presented.

Wesley Modderkolk

Seeing how it is a personal opinion you can't really name issues you haven't come across yourself.

tralalalalalala37

Those are issues when the HD is almost full. Hopefully they get worked out with an update.

jcStrabo

Hey, at least you didn't make the wrong claim again that the N9 is 9mm thick instead of the <8mm it really is (measured it myself).

Love my N9, far more than my iPad 4, that's now gathering dust except for the few occasions I need Airplay something on my XBMC machine.

I would never buy a tab that isn't 16:9. The things you use your tab for are retarded to me. I do most those things on my Laptop. I use a tab for entertainment on the go. But wutever. To each his own. I'll keep my N7 and smile. The n9 and the apple offerings are not my cup of tea.

Amrit Zoad

If I could, I would have tagged The Verge here. This is how you compare 2 devices with different OSs.

godutch

I think everyone who likes freedom and innovation should boycott Apple until they stop with their patent suits, how nice their products maybe

Bluewall

Oh come on.

Matti

Most GNU/Linux or BSD users laugh whenever they hear someone mention Android and freedom in the same sentence.

tralalalalalala37

It's how they protect R&D investment. They have dropped most of them. Android is closed source when not using AOSP (which you are not using if you have google services :) ), so it seems to be the way to go.

Marcel Ulbrich

Tiny correction: The Nexus 9 display is QXGA, not WXGA.

DonPorazzo

Is it Verge or android police? JK lol..
Good, honest writing, David.

whynot

best. review. ever!
i like both android and ios, and its nice too see an android site providing such detailed review and understands the benefits of both ecosystems.
thanks!

ramjet73

I'd like to see the iPad Air 2 compared to the Galaxy Note 10.1 2014. The current price for the iPad 64GB WiFi model at the Apple Store is $600 and the Note 32GB is $50 less at $550 from Best Buy. There is no 32GB model of the iPad and IMO it needs 64GB to offset the micro SD card capability of the Note.

This would be a much fairer comparison than the iPad with the Nexus 9 and I think the author would find that his priority features and quality preferences are met if not exceeded by the Note versus the iPad with more very usable features like the Spen and split screen. The main benefit of the iPad in that comparison would be weight, and some would argue the "ecosystem", but that is becoming less of an advantage for Apple on a daily basis.

For these reasons I have to disagree with the comment "If what you want is an iPad-ish (4:3, larger, high-end) Android tablet, then yes, the Nexus 9 is the only remotely respectable one available at the moment." Although the author apparently doesn't own one it would be worth his time and effort to get a Galaxy Note 10.1 2014 tablet and do a fair comparison of representative iOS and Android tablets in the 10 inch category.

tralalalalalala37

Ecosystem advantage is still about a year ahead. People said it would converge more quickly, but development costs are still much higher on android.

Dirk

If you want your favorite to win, then you let it win. It's good for you that you find the device of your dreams, though I don't share your enthusiasm. I returned my iPad because it was just a pain to use. Nothing worked as a "normal" person would expect. I had high expectations on Apple's famous "intuitive" UI, ending up with Apple support telling me "this is an apple, you can not do that with it". Sunlight visibility, battery life... Nothing of what you say can be confirmed by me. But maybe I just had 2 faulty devices...

tralalalalalala37

What operations were difficult, I'm curious.

ThEGr33k

I gave up on Mobile OS based tablets. Once you go MS Surface there ain't no going back... The freedom of a full OS that can actually replace your other computers (for all but the most intense video coding and gaming) is just amazing.

I guess I had to put this just to point out that unfortunately these two tablets really are just large screened phones... With most phones now being large screened phones I don't find much of a use case for these sorts of devices.

NOTE: I Generally dislike most of MS decisions - although they are improving - and I am no Fanboi of MS, infact I am a very big Android fan... So please take this as objective because I would love little more than to say ANDROID FTW!!!! :)

ramjet73

I must admit there are some good values in Windows 8.1 tablets ATM. My daughter's boyfriend just purchased a Lenovo Miix2 with 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD ( http://goo.gl/Hj0KbX ) at the local Microsoft Store for $600, the same price as the iPad Air 2, and it has more features than a $1200 Macbook Air!

Sorry for the OT post but the iPad already has us off topic on Android Police. ;)

tralalalalalala37

The surface is not a tablet. It's a laptop with a touchscreen/removable keyboard.

Serotheo

I'm just kinda sitting here wondering why Asus is the only manufacturer with a high-end metal Android tablet of late.

deppman

I really like my tf701t. A beautiful 10.1" 2560*1600 IGZO IPS display, and the 16x10 ratio works great for typing and browsing in portrait mode - which i use about 2/3rds of the time. Videos look great in landscape. The processor (Tegra 4) can get warm when pushed - just like my snapdragons - but the metal chassis dissipates the heat very well. I'd hate to see it in a metal case. 3D mark is on-par with the iPad air despite it pushing nearly a million (or 1.3x) pixels per frame at 300 DPI. I much prefer that to any iPad.

Steffen Laursen

I can agree with most of the comparison, but I don't experience nearly as many problems with the software. Agreed, battery life doesn't blow me away, but I've had about 5-6% battery usage for 30-45 minutes of surfing (typing this included). Gaming drains significantly faster, but I've been able to game for at least 4-5 hours of Magic the Gathering. But it's quite inconsistant, but this might also stem from the fact that I play Warlight on it, which is a notorious battery hog on any device, iOS and Android alike.
As for the crashes and necessary hard resets I haven't had any of those, except in the ever shoddy Warlight app, but that isn't unusual on any device.
On the other hand I only have a single mail account synchronized, and no social networks.

Phazonclash

Interesting review, good job AP!

Patrick Smithopolis

No offense but I really don't think this should be on an Android site. A comparison between the Samsung Note 10.1 and Nexus 9 seem more appropriate on a Android site.

abazigal

You could, but then you would simply be burying your head in the sand.

Patrick Smithopolis

Silly me for expecting an Android site to only report Android news. When are the reviews of the Blackberry Passport, Lumia 1520, and the Surface Pro 3 coming?

abazigal

Android doesn't exist in a vacuum. As others have mentioned, Apple products continue to represent the gold standard in their respective fields, either because of mindshare and / or because they really are that good. It's inevitable that any new mobile computing device will invariably be compared against its Apple equivalent.

Patrick Smithopolis

I never said Android existed in a vacuum. This is an Android site so I expect them to report Android news. Likewise, I expect an iOS site to report on iOS, a Windows site to report on Windows and a multi tech site to report on everything.

I've heard good things about the Surface Pro 3. When is he going to do a review of that? Also he already did a review of the Nexus 9 and pointed out all the faults of the tablet so there was no need to do this comparisons.

Alphajoe

I enjoyed it, though I'm primarily focused on Android. So what?

Patrick Smithopolis

You can enjoy whatever you want. I'm just pointing out that this is a site for Android news.

Alphajoe

And in my opinion this article is relevant in this context. In yours not. So what?

Patrick Smithopolis

Whatever floats your boat.

tralalalalalala37

SP3 isn't a tablet. It's a laptop with a touchscreen (hence the massive fans to cool it).

tralalalalalala37

They just reviewed an N9 and you complain...

Glyn Wilkinson

You never talked about navigation in the maps section.

Lonepalm

I don't think I could ever disagree with someone who says the hardware of the device (and by that I mean build quality) of an Apple device are generally better than Android devices. However, I usually disagree with people who think iOS is better than Android. There are not many aspects that iOS is on the cutting edge with anymore...Android seems to far surpass iOS in innovation and introducing new and cool things. So, to me, and this is only my opinion, the actual device/quality of Apple devices usually wins, but the OS (Android vs. iOS), Android usually wins. I would rather have a cheaper feeling device with modern and futuristic technologies than pay double the price for a nicer feeling/looking device with ancient software that is years behind Android innovation. Just my 2 cents.

tralalalalalala37

Some people appreciate the locked down iOS for security reasons.

abazigal

I am a lurker who uses mainly Apple products, and this review brings a tear to my eye.

All too often, many reviews often just go through the motions, copy and paste each device's specs, put them in a table against each other, and call it a day. What I have yet to actually see any reviewer do, is actually make an effort to use these devices and base his / her review off that.

In many ways, I like this review for the simple fact that it brings to attention one important tenet - that not everything which can be measured is meaningful, just as not everything that is meaningful can be measured. Specs do matter, but they aren't the be-all and end-all of what makes for a great user experience in a product.

You can rattle off a long list of features which Android can do that ios can't. It doesn't necessarily mean a thing if those features don't work towards improving the end user experience. How many people do you think really care about the openness of Android? They just want the basics to work, like smooth scrolling in Safari.

Patrick Smithopolis

The scrolling on Chrome and Safari are different. I just scrolled to the bottom of this article on my Nexus 5 and it took me three swipes. On an Apple device it would take a hundred swipes. I'm not sure if Apple purposefully does that to mask loading times and keep everything running smooth.

Matti

We could also say that Android purposely does the fast-swipe to mask dropped frames, I suppose.

Bruce

I really disliked the scrolling in Safari. An article as long as this takes forever to scroll. I use Firefox for the most part and occasionally Chrome. I'm really not seeing the scrolling problem people talk about on Android. I see scrolling lag in Link Bubble. But not on Fx or Chrome.

tralalalalalala37

One hard swipe would bring you to the bottom.

cellabonez

IMO i believe this comparison wasn't ready for as yet for we all know android l finally touches isn't completed as yet , so i would believe David you should do it after refined updated update is released

Wesley Modderkolk

Why are Google releasing an incomplete product commercially?

Ryan

K1 denver sucks huh? Shocker.

The moment it leaked that this was going to be nVidia powered i completely lost all interest in it. I got burned twice by those assholes, not falling for it again. "More cores!" is their rally cry and they seem to be able to build a chip around a benchmark but in real-world applications they are complete and utter garbage.

MvP77

It totally agree. I will never buy a phone or tablet with a nvidia processor.

Quinton

I dunno, I've been using the N9 for several days for my own review (through work), and I find it to be pretty dang fast. I think that most of the bugs and wonkiness are software related right now. The processor, on the other hand, is pretty impressive.

MvP77

I've owned over 10 Android tablets and I've owned every iPad except Air 2 and Mini 3. As much as I love android phones, there tablets leave much to be desired. I always end up going back to the iPad. I'm currently using the tab pro 8.4 and that's only because I have cyanogen on it. The Nexus 7 was good, but not really a tablet in my opinion. I really feel the biggest problem on the 9 ( no I don't own one) is the nvidia processor. They are great for gaming but seem to suck in general task.

Quinton

I have a Tab Pro 10.1. Bought it for the hardware (especially the screen), and I too am running CM. It beats the tar out of TouchWhiz

Quinton

I really appreciate this subjective review too...well, subjective from the POV that you took a step back and tried to give both the iPad and the Nexus 9 a fair shot based on your use. I also really appreciate the fact that you were sure to point out that this was a review based on how YOU use tablets.

I've been using the N9 for a few days in preparation for my own review. Though I haven't had the same stability issues, and strongly disagree about the appstore situation (seriously, I think all things iTunes and iTunes-like have never had good design), you make very good points! Though, I'm not disagreeing with you about the available content. The gap is narrowing, and with Android's global and even national marketshare, I think that gap might even tilt the other way at some point, but for now, Apple does have more content in the app store for tablets. :-)

My only real complaint is your hate for 16:9/16:10. I personally REALLY don't like the 4:3, and think my 10.1" tablet is pretty perfect. Held in portrait, I can type pretty comfortably on the screen using my thumbs because it's narrow enough, and movies take up the entire screen. 'Tis good!

Pez Nospam

Google picked the wrong OEM for the Nexus 9. Sony or LG would have nailed the build quality.

Hamdi Ferchichi

I would like to go with Sony

Pez Nospam

I don't mind either. However, I have LG TV, Blue-Ray player, GPad etc...

Jax Spade

You guys are the perfect Android support group. I want a larger tablet and have been struggling with the idea of buying Ipad Air over Nexus 9 simply because I don't see the value per dollar in this particular device but felt I was somehow admitting android defeat by entertaining the thought.

Fatal1ty_93_RUS

It's actually quite hard to believe that Google is stepping on Apple's mistakes they did with iPad's notification center pre-iOS7 in Android 5.0. So much fucking wasted space...

Material design is all about wasting fucking space I see

Lawrence

Ok, I'm getting the air 2 after reading this. I'm just waiting for my n10 to die.

HTC

Cough. Try playing any up to date game on an iPad2 or iPod4 and lower....if it works at all is a lag party at best. Else its mostly crashes or the app doesnt work at all...

TheLastAngel

Yeah, how about the Flyer?

Marc Robillard

I totaly agree with this review. I sold my iPad 3 and ordered a Nexus 9. Owning a Nexus 5 running the Lollipop preview build, I had high expectations for The Nexus 9. Unfortunately I was quite dissapointed, I love the front facing speakers and user switching is awesome but that's pretty much where it ended for me. I was very dissapointed in battery life, switching between applications was slow most of the time and the screen and build quality doesn't come close to apple. I returned my Nexus 9 the next day and purchased an iPad Air 2. Wow, so glad I did, really doesn't compare. I must say that I am having a lot of problems with safari and iOS 8.1 which I also had on my iPad 3. I hope Apple will release a fix soon as I'm currently using chrome for now... In my opinion the Nexus 9 is way overpriced for what it is, there are better options out there.

Guest

Apple is killing Android on Androidpolice lol

Guest

The iPad 2 is the Gold standard in tablets, because Gold

shatner

Why dont nexus come in Gold color?

anon

I think, like a lot of things this mostly comes down to personal preference. I have a Nexus 7 (2012) which has served me well but was in need of replacement, I bought a Nexus 9 and I love it! I don't have any of the light bleed or overly flexible back issues I've read about, it feels pretty solid and, performance wise, is a considerable upgrade to my old N7. Yes, there are a few stutters now and again, but nothing more than what I experienced with the N7 the first few weeks before the first major bugfix. As for battery, I've been using it on and off for the last 14 hours (approx 7.5 onscreen time) and it's at 18%. The finish may not be quite as spectacular on an iPad but it is *cheaper*. Whether you prefer the iPad or the N9 is going to come down to your personal preference. I find the iPad just that little bit too big and I prefer android to iOS. But hey, each to their own, right? :)

tipoo2

The Nexus 6 also stutters and lags, so I think the Denver K1 is off the hook for the performance issues. I think it's just that they went with cheap storage.

Gandalf_Teh_Gray

Uh World of Tanks, gonna be so far behind in Blitz and no chance to do beta testing. They did it all in Russia apparently.

Cam Shaft

Whats the price difference? I mean Cmon can we please compare Apples to Apples so to speak? Why not compare a 16k Holden Barina and a 32k Ford Falcon and say the Fords better?

Glenn Howes

I think the article summed this up when it said that the price of the iPad was acceptable, but there was no way that the Nexus was worth anywhere near $400.

abazigal

If you want to get some writing done on the iPad, consider trying out the app - editorial

It's a markdown app, though it is not easy to get the hang off, so I am not sure if it is worth your time to master it when you can get the same job done more easily on your PC. Not to mention I am not sure how your audience might react if they realise you are posting Android-related articles via an iPad.

For context, the author of Macstories prepares and publishes his articles on his iPad. You can view it here to get a hang of the end result.

I find this really article really interesting.
I so was frustrated with there being no good Android tablets last year that I bought an iPad Air. I loved its build quality, speed was pretty good, the aspect ratio was great. The games that were available were a huge jump in quality from Android. Battery life was great, and very predictable. I trusted the iPad.
But, things like not having a file system, or being able to put movies on it for travelling really bothered me (I know you can put movies on, but it has to be a certain file type, and even transferring them over was pretty annoying).
I really didn't like the home screen situation either. If I wanted to move an icon somewhere, it could only go in the grid. You could only rearrange the order of the icons, not the placement. Also, I did not like not having an app drawer, I like to look at my wallpaper, not all the icons in front of it.
I think the one thing that really bothered me, and convinced me to sell ultimately was its data usage. This could totally be due to me being an iOS noob, but after two days of tethering my iPad to my phone I had used over 5gb of data. I hadn't streamed any movies/music... I had only used chrome and twitter. Android tablets I have had before using the same usage never even approached 1gb in that time frame. My phone bill was an extra $100 just from that weekend. Ultimately I sold it (great re-sale value too).

But, your article is really interesting. The new iPad anti-reflective coating seems like a game changer for outdoor use. The extra gig of ram I am sure will be useful for tabbed browsing among other things. iOS 8's improvements, such as the actionable notifications and semi-widgets take a couple of annoyances away.
If I were to get the LTE version I would guess the iPad would not use as much data? Similar to a phone (where it won't pre-load images, will compress data more). I am definitely considering returning the N9 and getting an Air 2 with LTE. Great article though.

sguyx

no good android tablets on last year??? with the money you and i paid for air1, there were several choices of good android tablets...

Connor

I purchased the Air in February last year. The premium Android tablets that were available at the time was the Asus Transformer 701t, the Sony Z Tablet 1 (2 had just been announced), the Samsung Note 2014 Edition, Samsung Tab Pro line had just been announced, and the Kindle Fire HDX. The gPad could also be considered premium too. I tried all of these tablets except the Samsung one, nothing was as good as the iPad in terms of speed, build quality, and battery life. I really really do not like Samsung software, I realize I can install an AOSP rom, and I certainly considered it. Ultimately, I was sick of trying Android tablets and thought it would be interesting to try out iOS.

Android has really closed the gap when it comes to games. Especially in the last year. When I bought the iPad games like Civilization Revolution, XCom, FTL, the Walking Dead all were not available on Android. FTL still isn't, but that is a huge improvement for Android right there.

There are a lot better Android tablets out this year. The Tab S line looks solid, the Nvidia Shield looks amazing, I have the Nexus 9 right now and I think it is a great tablet that is getting a bad rap.

tralalalalalala37

GoodReader is a filesystem app that works amazingly.

Connor

I used iFile once I had jailbroke and it seemed pretty good. Is GoodReader something that requires jailbreak and is it better than iFile?

tralalalalalala37

It does not require jailbreak. What exactly do you need access to, as it provides lots of server connectivity functionality and is a fully featured pdf editor.

Bravo AP! This is like one of those articles which you wish would be more long (I feel "The history of Android" by ARS the best one in this category). Keep up the spirit of journalism :)

Ivan Poong

Noob question here, is the poor battery life and also its stutter and lag mainly due to its software problem or is the blame on the hardware? If software is the case, is it safe to say battery problems and lags are only a temporary problem now?

tralalalalalala50

Temporary for a few years...? Even a few months of bad software usage can physically damage the battery and lower lifetime if it is cycling too quickly due to errors.

I'd like to see your comments about voice-control, comparing Siri to Android. You had a (inferred) reference to liking Android's voice-control over Siri early-on in your article and I would have greatly enjoyed reading more of your opinion on this particular topic.

Kid dee

"While AirDrop can be cool if you have a Mac or another iOS device, like Android Beam it's just not fast and seamless enough for me to understand why I wouldn't just email or Dropbox a file to myself or someone else." AirDrop uses peer to peer wifi, So its a lot more faster than email or Dropbox which is limited by your Internet connection. You will definitely see the speed difference when you use it to transfer large number of files. Agree though that it has its limitations in terms of support availability for Non Apple devices.

Nit-pick: Apple has content restrictions in Settings, under Restrictions (known as Parental Controls on the Mac).

Recommendation: For photo editing you can try the Pixelmator app Apple showed off during its iPad Air 2 keynote.

sguyx

you are such a lucky person! you didnt mention screen distortion or sound vibrating as a cons when listing pros/cons about air2, so you actually have a perfect device?? i have been in stores, and all devices i have tried had screen distortions when holding it on your hands. sound vibrations is another story. but you dont have this either, lucky person as i said. im abit afraid of buying one and then get a bad copy (no apple stores here so no exhange/refund) - it will be a lottery :/ i already have ipad air, so air2 seems to be worse what comes to build quality. but air suffers of 1gig ram, so im interested in replacing it by air2 - but the build quality seems to be a joke. but there are good copies too without screen distortion/uneven colours/bookspines, because the author has one! i havent seen any good quality air2s yet, so im still searching... i havent tried nexus 9, so i cant say anything about it. however, im not going to buy it either because i have Note tablet and i dont like or need a tablet without productivity options like multiwindows and optimized pen. i do have air though, but there is no other options like android has... i dont think that google tries to make highend devices, but they are making devices that are in budget price but still having a very good specs at that reasonable price. if you add atleast 25% more as you need to do with ipad, surely you should get something better.. if dont, why bother to pay...

Caio Daniel Nunes Santos

The HTC tablet is much cheaper than the Apple one.

Hunter

For some reason I thought Android Police was just a tacky news site. I had never really been into the site, but that was the impression I had. This article has thrown that impression out the window!

Dale P

As a fellow dual-wielder (my LG G Pad 8.3 and iPad Air 2 are both sat on my desk right now), I love these comparisons. I think it's healthy and sane for any tech enthusiast to know what their chosen platform has and lacks when compared to its rivals to keep making informed choices. For anyone who can't pick up more than one tablet, you can't just rely on brand allegiances.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the problems with light bleed and the back of the nexus 9 giving in spots is very lot specific. The one I have does not have either of these problems. Also, I don't have the problems with battery life that you seem to: I get ~7-8 hours of active use time without any problems at all. Just my two cents.

tralalalalalala50

Thanks for beta testing the android tablet space. We need more of you though so that developers have a reason to optimize their apps for the screen space.

BFS

Hi
Great comparison review!
My nexus 9 also has the screen flickering. It only happens sometimes, and for about 30 seconds or so. I've been testing, and it only happens or is noticeable when screen brightness is tuned down, regardless of being in auto or fixed brightness. Also it is more visible in light screens like in browser or hangouts app.

I've installed one brightness control app from the play store and for now it doesn't seem to be happening anymore, but I need more testing time to be certain.

Hey, you realize that's why the nexus 9 has the most epic battery saver imaginable. With it off, I Get what you do, about 6 hours, but after 3 weeks of running my battery saver regularly, not just when I'm low on charge, I squeeze out between 16 hours and 26 hours! Goto the notifications panel, click your battery percentage next to the settings button up top, and it takes you to battery usage. Click the button next to refresh and click battery saver. I promise after a few weeks, your nexus 9 will be blowing that overpriced ipod-xl out of the water. My dad actually has an iPad air 2 And he is jealous of my tablet. Its cheaper, better looking, and runs better. And I bought a gmyle leather case that makes my expensive electronic look like an ordinary bible. Less chance of it getting swiped from me.

Mohd Ashfaq Ahmed

u can get a better comparison of iPad air 2 and nexus 9 on the given link below

I agree with most things you said except for web browsing. On Android you get the option of Firefox, and with Firefox comes adblock. If you haven't try it, give it a try. Web browsing without adblock is simply crap.